The Meeting
by Nightshadowmidnight
Summary: A meeting between Shugo Chara's Ikuto Tsukiyomi and Fairy Tail's Gray Fullbuster. Ikuto finds himself in Magnolia and comes across a guy who sounds just like him. Just how is he going to get back to Tokyo? Mainly in Ikuto's POV.
1. Chapter 1

**My first Fairy Tail related fic! yay!**

**Just how I reckon a meeting between Fairy Tail's Gray Fullbuster and Shugo Chara's Ikuto Tsukiyomi might go. The first part of the story is me mainly practicing my writing, so yeah... For those who have not watched either of the animes, Gray and Ikuto are both voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura.**

**Disclaimer: Just so you know I do not own Fairy Tail or Shugo Chara! They belong to Hiro Mashima and Peach Pit.**

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The sunlight shone down through the leaves of the largest tree in the forest. It lit up the forest floor and made the leaves and flower petals glow. Most of the inhabitants of Magnolia favoured the sunshine. The town had recently experienced an unusually long month of heavy rain and people weren't used to it.

But there was one person who did not welcome the sun, someone who shouldn't even have been there in the first place. As he came to, he squinted in the light and creased his brow at the sudden change in intensity.

Ikuto's pale hand came up to cover his eyes and he groaned. This was just inconvenient. He was super sleepy and this just wouldn't do.

He sat upright and stretched, but didn't bother to open his eyes fully just yet. He finished his arm stretch and propped himself up by his elbows before properly opening his eyes and taking a look around. He became instantly both shocked and confused. A feeling of panic set in. His dark blue eyes widened as he took in everything around him.

… Was this some kind of joke? Where in the heck _was _he?

There was the strange feel of soft grass under his palms, the clean spring air ruffling through his hair, and the scent of flowers or blossoms coming from somewhere nearby. There were even birds not too far off.

Ikuto sprung up and did a full turn. Where was this? Last time he checked he was at home. Last time he checked he was in Tokyo. One minute he was resting on the roof of Easter trying to get half an hour of rest before Yoru decided to come back from his meeting with the alley cats and the next he was in some sort of forest!

He took a look at the trees around him and glanced up at the blue sky. This wasn't Tokyo. To say this wasn't Tokyo… was an understatement.

Ikuto just about gave himself whiplash as he quickly twisted and turned his neck trying to understand the situation he was in, though he was pretty sure this was a fairly unusual situation.

"W-What?" he murmured to himself. Eventually he just sighed and looked at the ground beneath his feet.

Okay. First things first. Find out where he was.

This sounded like a sensible option and so Ikuto made off through the trees. He thought he could spot a dirt path to the left, so maybe it would lead him so a town or a village maybe. Maybe there he could tell and ask someone for help. Whether anyone would believe him or not was yet to be seen. If he told anyone something this bizarre he'd most likely be taken for a crazy person and left all on his own. He didn't want that to happen.

Ikuto walked for maybe five minutes down the little dirt path before he heard something, a twig or stick maybe, snap in front of him. He froze.

A moment or two went by before there was complete silence again despite the occasional bird call or the rustle of the breeze in the trees and when he had calmed again Ikuto walked on.

By this time Ikuto found himself surrounded by cherry blossoms and the delicate pink petals just about covered the pathway. He looked up at the trees. You didn't often see a sight like this in Tokyo.

He admired the petals as they fell, circling and even taking to stepping backwards down the path as he tilted his head up.

Suddenly something hit him from behind. It took the air out of his lungs and he stumbled, but miraculously managing to stay on two feet. He whirled round, startled.

Stood in the pathway was a guy who looked around Ikuto's age and was rubbing his head after hitting something whilst running at full speed. When the guy looked up at him he scowled and stepped forwards.

"Oi! Wanna watch where ya going? I'm in a hurry here!" he yelled, little veins popping on the side of his head.

Ikuto just stood there dumbfounded. This stranger sounded exactly like him! He could swear he wasn't hearing things! They both spoke in that low, smooth, masculine voice. It was strange to hear his own voice coming out someone else's mouth. It was totally unreal.

Ikuto's mind was working its best to figure out how the hell this was possible, but so far he hadn't come up with anything.

His thoughts mirrored his expression: _What. The. Hell._

This wasn't true. It couldn't be. What with the forest thing and all this was just too coincidental. He took a good look at the man in front of him.

He couldn't have been much older than he was. They were the same height, but this man was more toned than he was whilst Ikuto was thinner and cat-like. The man had dark, spiked, raven hair unlike Ikuto's sapphire, soft, shiny hair that two velvet cat ears peeked out of.

One thing that was painfully obvious though, was the fact that one of them was half naked. Ikuto was quite comfortable in his dark uniform, but the other stood in the middle of the path in broad daylight in nothing but his dark blue boxers.

The stranger just took another step forward and spoke again. "Hey! I'm talking to you! Wanna get out of the way of the path before I _knock _you down?"

"Y-You…" Ikuto began slowly. How the hell did he explain this to someone he just met? Oh well, here it goes… He swallowed. "You sound…"

It seemed the stranger had noticed something too. He frowned.

Ikuto finished his sentence. "Why do you sound like me?" he asked.

The stranger looked a little ticked off. Another, larger vein appeared on the side of his head. "Moron!" he snapped. "Why do _you _sound like _me?"_

At the outburst Ikuto felt it was his time to frown. "Who _are _you?"

The other man stood up straight, anime-style veins calming down. "Gray Fullbuster." He replied, eyeing Ikuto carefully. "You."

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto."

…

There was a moment of awkward silence. Neither knew what to say next. Each kept their eyes on each other warily as if they might leap and attack at any moment.

Ikuto shrugged mentally to himself and decided to bring up the original question again. "Why do you sound like me?"

The anger came back to Gray's face. "What did I say? Why do YOU sound like ME?"

This time Ikuto also found himself becoming irritated. "I don't know! I just found myself here! I don't even know where I am!"

"Are you like my alternate self?"

"Could that be so..?"

There was another silence as they both thought about this possibility. Both seemed to assume this was the answer and started arguing again.

"What's with you hair?" Ikuto pointed to Gray's head.

"Why's your hair _blue?"_

"Where are your clothes?"

"Why have you got cat ears?"

"No, seriously, where are your clothes?"

Gray looked down at himself. He let out an uncharacteristic scream and jumped back out of surprise a few feet. _"AH! When did that happen?"_

"Dude, you can't just walk around half-naked!" Ikuto pointed out.

"Then I'll just walk around full-naked damn it!" Gray yelled. He prepared to take off what little clothes he already had on.

Ikuto was genuinely shocked. "What! NO!"

"_It's uncomfortable damn it!"_

"God no!" he prepared to turn away. Walking round with a naked person in the middle of the forest was not only uncomfortable, but also seemed slightly dodgy.

As Gray was about to take off his boxers, a voice sounded from behind them. "GRAY FULLBUSTER!"

Gray paused as the colour drained from his face and stood on the spot.

Ikuto breathed a sigh of relief and looked back. Gray froze.

"Gray! You air-headed fool! How many times do I have to tell you not to run naked around the guild?"

Gray instantly un-froze and turned to see the woman heading towards them. Ikuto gulped. This woman had a dark aura around her. She had red hair and wore armour. There was definitely danger approaching.

"U-Uh…" Gray swallowed thickly. "H-Hey Erza…"

Erza came to stop and frowned at him. "You…"

"EEP!" he squealed. Within a second he jumped towards Ikuto and hid behind his back.

The dark aura burst into flames. _"DON'T YOU HIDE FROM ME!"_

There was a squeak followed by a small trail of dust as Gray ran away at the speed of light. Erza was instantly on his tail. _"COME BACK FOR YOUR PUNISHMENT!"_

Once they were out of sight Ikuto was left stood there. He blinked a couple of times before looking over his shoulder the way they had gone. Well, he could stay here and wander aimlessly until he found someone else or…

He shrugged and turned to head in their direction. He needed somebody to ask for help, right?

* * *

**I have just learnt that I can't do endings! Ha! "Gray froze" XD You see what I did there? XD That was a terrible line. I'm sorry... I do come up with some really terrible puns.**

**Hmm I was thinking I could turn this into a proper story... it's a crossover so I'm not sure many people will read it, but whatever! I'm gunna see if I can do something with it!**

**Thanks for reading! ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay! Chapter number two uploaded! This was meant to be out a couple of days ago... stupid school got in the way :L**

**I would've added more to this chapter, but I didn't want it to get too long.**

**Enjoy!**

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"_WHY YOU!"_ an angry red-headed woman sped through the forest following the little trail of dust that had been kicked up in her victim's attempt to escape.

A few metres ahead of her Gray Fullbuster pretty much ran for his life. _"Erza! Wait! Calm down!"_ he tried his best to save himself, but unfortunately it wasn't going as planned.

"_Don't you tell me to calm down!" _Erza roared, steam shooting out of her ears. _"You get back here and face your punishment!"_

"_EEK!"_

Gray let out a yelp as Erza suddenly rugby tackled him to the floor, sending up dirt as he skidded a few feet on his face. He lifted his dusty face off of the ground and grunted as he tried to push himself off his stomach. He was only forced back down with a _'thud!' _as Erza sat on his back, pushing his shoulders down so he was pinned to the floor.

"Now that wasn't so hard was it, Gray?" Erza said in her firm voice. She was unaware of the agony the poor man was currently going through.

"_E-Erza…" _he mumbled shakily. _"P-Please… L-Let me go! I'm begging you! Y-You're too h-heavy!"_

She responded by grabbing a part of his hair and pulling it back. "You calling me fat, boy?" she demanded.

He realised his mistake and tried not to squeal. "N-No!"

"You want me to get off?" she said dangerously calmly.

He managed a small nod and whimpered "Y-Yes!"

"_WELL YOU'RE OUTTA LUCK, BOY!"_

"_AH!"_

Meanwhile Ikuto walked the way the other two had gone. He started walking at a quicker pace, not wanting to lose them. After all, he did want to get back home as fast as possible. Any normal people would treat him as an idiot if he told them what had just happened to him, but these people just weren't normal. Or at least it seemed that way.

He heard yelling a little ahead and he quickly reached a small clearing that the path ran through. For a moment or two he considered turning away… until he realised that what he was witnessing was just torture and not… well… anything dodgy.

In the middle of the path lay this 'Gray' character and sat on his lower back was the mad woman who had chased him away. Right now she was yelling insults at him whilst gripping onto his hair and shaking his head back and forth.

Ikuto stood watching the scene not really knowing how to react. He shook his head. "This is all a dream. It's got to be. This is all a dream…" he took another look at the two people and rolled his eyes out of disbelief. "These people are crazy." He said to himself.

After a moment or two the woman let go of Gray's hair and he somehow managed to escape from under her. He leapt up onto his feet and rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. She seemed to have calmed down after taking all her rage out on his head and stood up, brushing off her armour. See, this was proof that she must have been crazy! Who would wear armour like it was totally normal?

"Now," she said after a few seconds. She didn't even look over at him as she adjusted the armour on her hands. "That wasn't so bad, was it, Gray?"

He scoffed. "Like hell it wasn't!"

She shot him a glare. "Well I've not finished with you yet." She growled. "You just wait 'til we get back to the guild."

At the intensity of the glare he practically leapt out of his skin. "EEP!"

From his position at the edge of the little clearing Ikuto was surprised that neither had seen him yet and he decided to end Gray's torture for now and make his presence known.

He cleared his throat and took a step forward, jumping when the red-haired woman snapped her head back round to look at him. _'Man, she's scary…' _ "Uh…" Now he felt uncomfortable and slightly guilty when he realised he'd forgotten her name. Sure, Gray had mentioned it, but everything had happened to quickly for him to take any details like that in.

The woman moved towards him, giving him a serious look as she did so. "What seems to be the problem?"

Ikuto tried to speak, but how the hell did he explain something this crazy to her while she was giving him that look? "Uh, I-I'm Tsukiyomi Ikuto,"

"Ah," she said and held out one of her steel-covered hands. "Greetings, Tsukiyomi. I am Titania Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail."

Warily Ikuto took her hand and slowly shook it.

"So, Tsukiyomi," Erza said again, "as a Fairy Tail wizard is there anything I can help you with?"

'_Huh?'_

Okay, there were two things wrong with that sentence. Number one: She was calling him Tsukiyomi. Did she think that was his actual name? And number two: _WIZARD? _What the hell? Things like that didn't exist! Wow these people really were crazy…

"W-_Wizard?" _he repeated, making sure that he had heard that right.

She nodded. "Yes. A wizard." Erza frowned after seeing Ikuto's shocked expression. "Is something wrong?"

Ikuto let his jaw drop slightly. Wizards… no. Just no! INSANE PERSON! And she hadn't even picked up on the fact that he sounded just like the man she had been beating not only five minutes ago.

At that moment Gray chose to walk over. "Why so shocked?"

Erza put a hand to her chin in thought. "Hmm… Only 10% of Fiore's population are wizards." She pointed out. "Maybe Tsukiyomi here comes from a continent that doesn't use magic?"

There was a few moments of silence before anyone spoke again.

"Come back to the guild." Erza broke the silence.

Ikuto frowned. "Huh?"

"You're not from around here are you?" she guessed.

He nodded. "I have no idea where I'm going. I was wondering if you could help me?"

Erza nodded. "I thought so. In that case come back to Fairy Tail with us. I'm sure everyone will be willing to help you out, Tsukiyomi."

He sweatdropped. "Yeah, it's not 'Tsukiyomi'…"

Apparently his correction had gone unheard by Erza as she motioned for him to go back down the path. "Follow me." She commanded and briskly headed off in the direction of the guild. Gray followed shortly after with Ikuto close behind. What was Fairy Tail? It looked like he was about to find out.

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**Aaanndd in this chapter we are reminded of just how scary Erza can be. Lol. I love writing about her when she's in a rage.**

**Next chapter (as you can probably tell) Ikuto's going to have to face the guild. Let's see how this turns out...**


	3. Chapter 3

**It would seem I have this chapter up quicker than usual. Next episode of Fairy Tail hasn't come out yet (sigh), so I thought I'd write more. I have a lot of free time on my hands ^^**

**Oh! And by the way the guild I'm using in this story is the second one. The one they build after Gajeel destroys the original guild, sooo I guess this also kinda put the story before the Tenrou Island plot. Sorry if that's a disappointment ^^'''**

**Okay, so disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Shugo Chara! Understand? Yes? Oui? Hai? Sí? Good!**

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Ikuto stared at the giant sign on the front of the building. Picked out of gold above the front gates were the words 'FAIRY TAIL'. Above them an orange banner that hung from the wall below a bell tower on the very top of the building. It looked more like a mini castle.

He tried not to get too distracted by the building's exterior as he followed the two helpful but seriously strange 'wizards' into the guild.

He almost scoffed. _'Wizards, yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it.'_

There was a creak as the double door entranceway was pushed open and the three stepped into the building.

As they moved forwards Ikuto looked around curiously. The place was full and noisy. Very, very noisy.

There were rows and roads of tables in front of him where people sat and drank or ate, talking whilst they did. At the very back of the room was a stage which was currently empty. To the right was a bar where a white-haired, but young woman, was serving drinks that looked like they were alcoholic to people all lined up on barstools.

As they entered many heads turned in their direction. In his own environment Ikuto would have ignored them, but here were he felt extremely out of place he was seriously glad that Erza and Gray were walking in front of him. That way maybe the other people wouldn't notice him first.

He looked around at everyone. There were all sorts of people here of all ages and sizes. One brunette who was sat cross-legged on a table top with an insanely large mug of beer in her hand winked at him as he came past. He tried not to pay attention to her.

Instead his attention was turned to some guy sitting in a corner by himself taking chunks out of a block of metal with some strange black cat with wings floating over his shoulder. The guy noticed him and gave Ikuto a hard glare. This combined with the odd piercings on his face gave him a real scary look. Ikuto made a mental note to avoid that guy.

After what seemed like a long time they came to a stop by the bar. Erza leaned on the counter, her armour-covered elbow making a clunking sound against the wooden surface. She faced the white-haired barmaid. "Where is the master?" she asked firmly.

The barmaid smiled sweetly and spoke in a soft, kind voice. "He's on his way back from a meeting with the other guild masters." She explained. "He left early this morning, so he should be back any time now."

Erza nodded in understanding. "I see."

"Oh," the barmaid looked over Erza's shoulder, "a new member?"

"Not exactly," she said. She stepped to the side and Ikuto was aware that pretty much everyone's attention was now on him. "This is Tsukiyomi Ikuto." _'Brilliant.'_

He put his hands in his pockets and tried to remain his usual self. "I'm just trying to find out where I am."

A look of shock appeared on her face. "Y-You sound just like-"

"See!" Gray shouted suddenly. "I knew he was the one that sounded like me!"

Erza placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Gray, I don't know what you're talking about."

Gray's jaw almost dropped in disbelief. "H-How can you not tell? Mine and his voices sound exactly alike!"

She put a finger on her chin in thought. "Hm, I suppose they do…"

Gray facepalmed. The white-haired woman sweatdropped and decided to move the conversation on.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Mirajane Strauss." The barmaid smiled at him. "Not from around here?"

"No."

She tilted her head to the side. "Where are you from?"

Ikuto thought for a moment then mentally shrugged. "Tokyo." He stated.

There was silence between the four people stood at the bar. Gray, Erza and Mirajane stared at him like he was a crazy person. Just as he had feared…

"Tokyo?" Mirajane repeated.

"Where's that?" Gray asked him.

"Y-You're really not from around here are you…" Erza was for once in her life at a loss for words.

Ikuto ran a hand through his navy hair. This was worse than her thought. "Tokyo." He said again. "Capital city of Japan, Asia, east of the larger continents." Once more there was confused silence. "…Earth?" he hesitantly added.

"Earth?" Erza frowned.

Ikuto felt like jumping off a bridge like one of the many he'd seen coming to this place. How could they not know what Earth was? Was he really in a different _world? _A different universe even? All the while he had been praying that this was just an unusually long nightmare and now he knew this wasn't true. Reality hit him hard.

He put a hand on his forehead. "Oh boy," he murmured before speaking up, "w-where am I if I'm not on Earth?"

"Are you referring to Earthland?" Mirajane said.

He shook his head. "No, Earth, the planet. Just _one _word." Ikuto sighed heavily. "Where am I?" he was growing tired of asking.

The three others looked at each other. Gray spoke up. "Our planet isn't called 'Earth'. It's called Earthland. This city is Magnolia in the country of Fiore."

Ikuto suddenly felt horribly dizzy and stumbled forwards to sit on a barstool. Leaning his elbows on the surface on the bar he buried his face in his hands. Mirajane reached over and with a sympathetic look on her face put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well," Erza cleared her throat, "the master should be here soon. He should be able to help you."

With that Erza and Gray wandered off. Ikuto was left with Mirajane.

"Hey," she took her hand back, "cheer up." She then moved over to the shelf and grabbed a clean beer mug and filled it up. Ikuto stared at it as it was pushed towards him. "Here. Drink up."

_**X.X.X.**_

An hour later Ikuto was still sat at the bar with no one but Mirajane for company and his beer which wasn't even half empty yet. He'd never really been one to drink and he didn't particularly like beer, but this one had a different taste and he found it more bearable to drink.

For the past forty minutes, Mirajane had been trying to explain to him how this world worked. He still was sceptical and reluctant to believe this whole magic business, but soon he found himself too depressed to care. However when she had explained to him about the guilds and what they were for Ikuto did start to think that maybe it was possible.

At some point in the conversation Mira's younger sister, Lisanna, had joined. She surprisingly didn't look at him like he was crazy when she heard his voice or when she learned he was supposedly from another universe. This made him relieved, yet slightly curious as to why she hadn't dismissed the idea immediately. When he explained "I found myself here and I have no idea what this place is like or how I got here and I think I'm from another universe" she'd got this tiny gleam in her eyes and sat down beside him to find out more. Strange girl she was…

"So, what's your world like?" Lisanna looked at him with those large, ocean blue eyes and took another sip of her own drink. Mira leaned in whilst she was cleaning glasses to hear what he had to say.

"Well," Ikuto began, thinking about what to say in the first place, "It's very… advanced. The technology there is very advanced. Magic doesn't exist, so we have better technology to make up for it."

"Amazing!" Lisanna beamed. She was fascinated.

"From what I've seen, our cities are very different to yours. This is a typical city, yes?" Both women nodded. As he thought more about the home he was missing he started rambling slightly. "In our world cities are made up of many, _many _buildings and skyscrapers – buildings made of metal so tall you can barely see the top. The city is mostly metal and concrete with very little greenery."

Mira and especially Lisanna were hanging off his every word.

"Some parts of Tokyo are less built-up." He took another drink of his beer. "Sometimes I live in the more residential areas."

"Sometimes?" Mira picked up another glass and a clean towel.

"I don't really stay at home for very long. I can sleep anywhere." He explained, not really caring that he possibly was beginning to talk about more personal parts of his life.

"Earth sounds like an interesting place." Lisanna mumbled to herself to than to anyone else and took another drink.

Ikuto sighed quietly and thought about his home. At least he was away from Easter for a while… and his stepdad. How he hated that man. And damn it! He'd left Yoru back home! The poor thing would probably be worried about him. But still, what would his stepfather do while he was gone? It wasn't uncommon for him to disappear for a few days, but if Kazuomi found out more about the Embryo he would demand for Ikuto to go out and search for X-Eggs. Not that Ikuto cared, but he'd be in real trouble with Mr Director when he got back. Of course maybe he'd use that new French girl again. What was her name? Lulu if he remembered correctly. But she didn't have much to do with X-Eggs, instead drawing those strange Mystery Eggs out of kids to lure the Embryo out.

Had he been alone, Ikuto would've chuckled or smirked or done _something_ to show his amusement when he thought about how Lulu had never succeeded. Every time a Mystery Egg would appear Amu had conveniently been there to put a stop to it.

Ikuto sighed. _'Amu…'_

"What's wrong?" Mira noticed his expression and put down her glass and towel.

"Just thinking of someone back home." He replied sadly.

Mira's face showed sympathy. "I'm sure you'll be able to get back to them soon, Ikuto."

"Yeah." He desperately hoped so as an image of Hinamori Amu appeared in his head. What if he never got back to her at all? He frowned and looked up. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have any women with pink hair would you?"

She gave him an odd look and opened her mouth to speak when there was a banging sound behind them as the doors burst open. Everyone in the guild turned to see who was coming in.

The light from outside poured in, blinding everyone temporarily and leaving nothing to see but the silhouette of what looked like a young man in the doorway.

Eventually the light returned to normal as the doors shut and another Fairy Tail member walked in. He was tall and had the biggest grin on his face. There was a white scarf round his neck that was decorated to look like scales. He was wearing a black and gold waistcoat with knee-length white trousers and a bag was slung over his left shoulder.  
But the first thing Ikuto noticed… was pink hair.

Ikuto turned back to face the bar, slightly shocked. "Okay, nevermind."

"Hey, everyone!" a cheerful voice addressed everyone and there was a huge reaction. People stood up and started either cheering or yelling.

"Looks like Natsu's back." Mira commented.

* * *

**Natsu! :D I've been wanting to add him in. More will be added in next chapter which I'll start writing right away.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I apologise for this chapter in advance. I actually found it hard to write which doesn't happen often, so I'm sorry if anyone turned out OOC which I know will really irritate me when I think about it.**

**Apart from that, here's chapter 4.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Shugo Chara. If I did then 1) We'd have less filler episodes and 2) Half the character transformations would have been dramatically changed. And I do mean dramatically.**

* * *

"Looks like Natsu's back." Mira commented.

Ikuto looked back at the man who had just arrived back at the Fairy Tail guild. "Huh? Natsu?"

Natsu's grin stretched from ear to ear as he made his way through the guild hall. He was being followed by a young, blonde woman who looked entirely ticked off for some reason and a… flying blue cat? "That job was _awesome!" _he exclaimed.

"Hey! Natsu's back!" someone yelled.

"Bout time too!" was the reply.

"Natsu! I heard you busted up another town!"

"How much of the reward went to damage costs this time?" the first person added in, causing almost everyone in the guild hall to burst into laughter.

The brunette woman who had winked at Ikuto earlier raised the drink in her hand and stood up on a table. "Drinks all round!"

"God, Cana, any excuse for a drink…"

"Just when the place got peaceful…" a gruff voice said just loud enough for everyone to hear.

In amongst it all Natsu shook his head, but the smile never left his face. A child with bright, hazel eyes and long, dark blue hair walked up to him and greeted him with a warm smile. "Natsu-san, how did your job go?"

"It was brilliant, Wendy! I really got to let loose a little. Didn't need to hold back." He smirked and clenched his hands into fists which, to Ikuto's surprise/horror, burst into roaring flames. "I'm still fired up!"

The child who had been speaking to him sweatdropped and smiled uneasily. "N-Natsu-san…"

"Oi!" Ikuto jumped when he heard his own voice coming from elsewhere in the room and turned to see Gray Fullbuster storm over to Natsu.

"Gray!" Natsu immediately held out his flaming fists in Gray's direction. "Fight me!" he demanded, a flash of excitement in his onyx eyes and a grin on his face that was a cross between determined and just pure evil.

Ikuto paid more attention as Gray stepped forward and placed a clenched fist against his left palm. "You wanna go, flamebrain?"

Natsu smirked. "I ain't gunna lose to you, you freaking popsicle!"

"What did you say, squinty eyes?"

"Droopy eyes!"

"Pyromaniac!"

"Exhibitionist!"

"I'll wipe the floor with ya!"

"I'm all fired up!"

"Ice make-!"

"Gray, your clothes." The brunette woman interrupted, resting her head in her palm and downing another beer.

"AH!"

The fight scene was cut short when Gray rushed off in a hurry to find his clothes. A short distance behind him a young woman with sky blue hair leapt out from behind a pillar and quickly followed him with love hearts radiating from her.

Ikuto faced Mirajane. "Is it always this lively around here?" he asked her, totally shocked by what was going on around him.

Just as he expected her to Mira smiled sweetly and nodded. "It's always like this. Sometimes it can get a _bit _out of hand…" she made a pained expression as she probably remembered incidents in the past. "But they never really mean to do any harm."

At that moment a glass flew from somewhere on the other side of the hall, barely missing Mira's head and hitting the shelves behind her. Ikuto jumped out of his skin and almost off of his stool as a hundred shards of glass were sent out in every direction.

Mira, however, didn't seem at all worried. "My, my," she shook her head and brushed a few pieces of the broken glass off the counter, "I'll have to get another drink for whoever that was."

The blue-haired teenager sat in front of her stared with his mouth hanging open as the barmaid cleaned another mug before filling it up with frothy, alcoholic liquid.

"I don't believe this place..."

"You'll get used to it." Lisanna tried to reassure him. It didn't work.

"Ooi! Lisanna!" Natsu's loud voice came closer as he made his way over.

"Natsu!" she beamed as she edged round in her seat to speak to him.

Ikuto didn't bother turning round until he felt someone slap his shoulder. Hard. "Oh, new recruit?"

"This is Ikuto. He's just arrived in Magnolia." Lisanna explained for him.

Natsu raised an eyebrow. "Ooh… So where are you from?"

"Far away." He replied simply. When he saw the pink-haired pyromaniac jump a little he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "And yes, I know, I sound like Gray over there." _'I'm getting tired of going over this…'_

"_What?" _Natsu cried. _"Two _Grays?"

"No, I'm not another version of him," Ikuto explained slowly, "I just _sound _like him."

"We're not really sure what happened," Lisanna began, "and we're not really sure why they sound so alike, but from what I've heard it seems Ikuto here doesn't come from our world."

… "Huh?"

"I know, it might be hard to accept-"

"Well then where does he come from? How did he get here?" Natsu pointed to the newcomer.

"I'm right here you know!" he snapped, irritated of being talked through.

"We don't know what happened." Lisanna repeated.

After a few seconds of silence between the three, the grin reappeared on Natsu's face. "Well, you're in Fairy Tail! We're the number one guild in Fiore and we're not at the top for nothing. If you talk to Levy or, even better, the master I bet they'll figure out some way to get you back."

Ikuto was slightly taken aback. Would they be so willing to help him? "Sure. I'll go talk to them when I can."

He was about to reply when yet another voice joined in. "Or you can talk to me now."

Ikuto frowned as the figure approached them. The old man was small, barely reaching even Lisanna's waist, had tufts of nearly white hair and he wore a pale jacket with fur lining.

Natsu's face lit up. "Gramps!"

'Or you can talk to me now'? Wait… was _this_ Fairy Tail's master?

* * *

**That felt... rushed -.-''' I'm gunna be trying my best when I write chapters in the future. ANYWAY! Enough of my complaining! Hopefully the next chapter should be uploaded soon ^^ along with a possible cover photo when fanfic lets us put them on stories.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I got round to updating! :D Guess what? It's almost the end of the school year which means exams. -.- They're almost over, so I should be writing more in a couple of weeks. I hope. :L**

**But you probably don't want to hear about my boring school stuff, so here's the disclaimer: Just like in the previous four chapters I don't own Shugo Chara! or Fairy Tail.**

**Oh and first I've just got one question:  
If Juvia was already one of the Element 4, Phantom Lord's four S-Class Wizards, why does she need to prove she can be an S-Class Wizard for Fairy Tail in the Tenrou Island plot? And if she was already S-Class then why did she lose so easily to Erza during the first challenge? Just a little something I thought of whilst rewatching the Phantom Lord arc.**

* * *

Well this was awkward… Ikuto was stood in front of Master Makarov who sat on the edge of the stage in the guild hall. (At least this way they could look each other in the eye.) The other guild members all crowded round in a semicircle in silence, leaving Ikuto standing like a loner in the centre and everyone's eyes on him made him feel uncomfortable.

He'd just explained what had happened in front of the Master and in front of the entire guild. Now all he had to do was wait for a response.

The Master put a hand on his chin and eyed the seventeen year old as he went over everything in his head. "Well," he eventually said, "this is _interesting…"_

Not the response Ikuto was hoping for. "Yeah." He sweatdropped.

"Though this may be unusual I can't say I'm shocked." The small man added. This gave him Ikuto's full attention. "We know that other worlds exist," he continued, "Lisanna here spent two years of her life in an alternate world called Edolas."

At the front of the crowd Lisanna nodded. "That's right."

Ikuto then had a realisation as she spoke. _'So _that's _why she was so interested in me!'_

"I thought there were only two worlds: Earthland and Edolas." someone from behind spoke up. The blonde who had returned earlier with Natsu crossed her arms and looked questioningly at Master Makarov.

"There may be many worlds that we are unaware of." He replied simply. "Lucy, you summon your celestial spirits from a different dimension, yes? Magic such as Erza's Requip calls out weapons and certain clothing from another dimension space also. Can these not be considered other worlds?"

Lucy thought for a moment. "I suppose so." She murmured with a finger pressed to her chin.

"The question is how to travel between those worlds!" the Master stood up on stage and spoke even louder. "Surely that would require some sort of magic, but from what we know this Earth comes from a universe without any sort of magical power."

"Quit stating the obvious, Gramps!" Natsu called out impatiently only to be silenced by Erza ramming her elbow into his gut. He collapsed onto the floor with a hand over his stomach. A groan escaped his mouth. "Damn you…" he muttered under his breath.

"You listen when the Master is talking." She told him sternly.

"A-Aye!"

"But Master," a soft voice spoke up and Ikuto noticed a small woman with sky blue hair tied back in an orange headband step forward, "there's no magic like that here in Earthland. I've never heard of anything like that before."

"Yes you have!" Gray said, annoyed. "The whole of Magnolia was sucked up into the sky and taken to Edolas. We all got turned into one giant lacrima! How could you forget that?"

"Yes, I remember all that," she nodded, "I'm just saying that that kind of magic doesn't exist in our world. Only Edolas has created that technology to produce animas that draw in magical energy."

The Master from his point on the stage sighed. "Levy's right. Over here don't know very much about animas at all." He paused as he thought about what to do next. "It would be much easier if Mystogan was still here… Okay, Levy! I want you to try and recall and make sense of anything we know about animas. See if there's any connection between them and what has happened to Ikuto. That's the most likely explanation I can think of."

"Yes, Master!"

"In the meantime though, I'd say you're stuck here."

"I was afraid of that." Ikuto sighed more to himself than to anyone else.

"But don't worry," he suddenly sounded more cheerful and less serious, "you can stay here at Fairy Tail until we find a way to get you back."

"Thanks." He breathed out, grateful for the help, but not 100% enthusiastic about staying in the guild. This place was too messed up, but if he had to choose between this or Easter… he wasn't sure about his decision yet, though he had to admit this beat being forced to work by your stepfather all day. Especially if the work was something you didn't want to do. It just wasn't right to destroy all those dreams and he didn't want to find out what would happen once the Director got his hands on the Embryo.

Shaking away the thought, he focused on his current situation. What did he do now? Just sit around all day like a spare part and wait for this Levy girl to finish her research? He was such a spare! No, he had to do something useful.

Looking around, most of the guild had gone back to where they were at the tables or the bar or what seemed to be a request board over by the front doors.

Then he spotted Levy out of the corner of his eye. She was sat at a bench near the wall away from everyone else. She'd moved fast since the Master had ordered her to start research and was already surrounded by piles of books, some of which looked fairly old and had a layer of dust covering their spines. She rested her head in her palm and with the other was scribbling into a notepad. To her side was a pair of magenta glasses.

She seemed to be concentrating hard and read each word carefully as she flipped the pages. Ikuto almost felt bad, knowing she was doing this to help him. Sure, the Master was the one who told her to, but still. Everyone else was going about their usual business.

Shrugging and deciding he had nothing better to do; Ikuto put his hands into his pockets and strolled over to where Levy was sat. She didn't seem to notice him until he sat down right next to her.

"Hey, Levy wasn't it?" he felt awkward breaking the silence.

She seemed slightly startled once he spoke up, but nodded. "Oh, yeah… Ikuto?"

He nodded.

"I suppose you're here to ask if I've gotten anything yet?" she guessed.

"Not really. Just didn't know what else to do." Ikuto admitted. "It's not like I really know anyone here."

"You will." Levy told him, starting to flip through the pages again. "It didn't take me too long to get to know everyone. We're a very tightly-knit guild."

"I can see that." He sighed as he watched Natsu and Gray run at each other at full speed. Before they collided Erza seemingly appeared out of nowhere and held out her armoured fists which made a horribly dull clunking sound as their skulls bashed into the metal.

"Fools." She muttered as they both lay on the ground unconscious, bumps forming on their heads, before stepping over Natsu's fallen body and making her way over to the request board. Once she had gone another woman in a dark blue coat stepped out from behind a nearby pillar and started fretting over Gray's injuries.

"You think you would ever consider joining?" Levy asked.

Ikuto turned his attention towards her again. "Not exactly. I need to find out if I can get home first."

"Oh that's right," she said quietly, "and you'd need to learn magic."

He shook his head. "I still can't believe a thing like that actually exists."

"Well you'd better believe it," she told him, a smile on her small face, "you're in a wizard's guild and every one of us here specialises in some type of magic."

Ikuto glanced back at the guild, looking over each person and wondering what type of magic they each had. "What type of wizard are you?" he asked.

At this question Levy gave him an even bigger smile. "I use Solid Script, one of the kinds of Caster magic!" she announced proudly. "There are so many kinds of Caster magic! It means you can use magical power from your own body instead of having to use an object to cast magic."

The blue-haired teen tried his best to take this all in. After a couple of seconds he slowly nodded. "What does Solid Script do?" he questioned, genuinely curious. After all, this was all new to him.

"I can create words that turn in to the object I wrote out." She said like it was the simplest thing in the world. When she got no reply she seemed to guess that he needed a demonstration. "Here, look at this."

Levy then stood up from her seat and called over to the wizard on the other side of the room who was just waking up from his encounter with Erza. "Hey, Natsu!" she called.

"Levy?" he grumbled, still not fully conscious.

When she was sure he was paying attention, she waved her arms so that they crossed and yelled: "Solid Script: Fire!"

As she spread her arms out again Ikuto was shocked to see the word 'FIRE' appear out of thin air. The words were somehow made out of flames and floated above the guild hall.

Seeing this, Natsu immediately seemed fully awake. "Woah!" He got up onto his feet and leapt up into the air, sucking in the fire as he did so and swallowing it down. He landed on a table, the bruises and bumps he had gained from his brawl with Gray gone. His fists once more burst into flames. "Now that I've eaten I'm all revved up! Thanks Levy!"

"No problem, Natsu-san!" she replied sweetly. Then she turned back to Ikuto who was sat with a blank expression on his face. "Simple, ne?"

"…Is he some kind of maniac?" Ikuto wondered aloud, though Levy didn't seem to hear it. She sat back down and sat sideways on the bench to face him.

"Anyway, we've been talking all this time and I haven't even introduced myself properly yet!" she said. "Nice to meet you, Tsukiyomi Ikuto. I'm Levy McGarden!"

At this Ikuto tried not to smirk. "Nice to meet you, Levy."

* * *

**Levy! :D She's cool. I felt so sad when she and Shadow Gear were attacked by Gajeel :'(**

**And yeah the last part where she introduces herself to Ikuto is there because of the part in the anime where Lucy remembers how Levy introduced herself to her even though they already knew each other. I can't remember what episode it is, but it's at some point during the Phantom Lord arc.**

**Anyway... I'm rambling now. Hope you enjoyed :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**Wow two chapters in one day! This doesn't happen often!**

**I'm actually pleased with the way this chapter turned out. I enjoyed writing it and I'm pretty confident about writing the next few chapters.**

**Well, I've done the disclaimer once today, so if you're wondering whether or not I own Shugo Chara! or Fairy Tail see chapter 5. Or 4. Or 3. Or even 1...**

* * *

"Tsukiyomi! You're slacking!"

"If you want me to get it right the least you could do is not yell at me!"

A deadly glint appeared in Titania Erza's eyes as she drew out her sword. "No slacking."

Ikuto eyed the sword warily as the tip was pressed against his throat. He tried not to gulp.

"And no backtalk. Got it?"

He swallowed, his throat dry. "Y-Yes."

"Good." Erza put her sword safely away in the sheath attached to her belt. "Now, continue with the chapter."

"Yes ma'am."

Sat in the dimly-lit library of Fairy Tail was not the best way to begin the day for Ikuto. He sat at a wooden desk in the middle of the room surrounded by shelves of books that towered over him. He carried on reading the book in front of him and tried not to get too distracted by the female stood across the desk.

He'd been in Fairy Tail almost a week. It had been five days since he first found himself in Fiore and so far not much progress had been made on finding out how he was there in the first place. Levy was still working on it though, determined to get the job done.

Erza had decided that if Ikuto was to stay in this world he couldn't keep mooching off of Fairy Tail forever, especially if he didn't know how to use magic, so she insisted that he learn the basics of magic and master at least one form of it. So that morning the moment she spotted him he had found himself being dragged by the collar into the impressive, yet slightly dull library.

He was almost finished reading up on the basics: what magic was; how it worked; how it was used; what types there were and that kind of thing. To be honest he found it very easy to understand, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to use it. Caster magic especially took a lot of concentration and mental ability and if he seriously wanted to use it he'd have to go through training which would be much harder at his age. From what he had learned most of the wizards in the guild had learnt to use their magic as young children.

Ikuto unconsciously let out a sigh and was rewarded with a sword pointed in his direction again. "Tsukiyomi!"

"Yes?" he answered, actually fearing for his life. Erza was a scary woman. He didn't want to get on her bad side.

"Are you making progress?" she asked.

"Yes." He answered truthfully. "But if I do get home what will be the point of learning to use magic?"

Erza raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

"Magic doesn't exist in my world." Ikuto put the book down and marked the page in case Erza made him reread the whole thing again. "If I ever get back to Earth I won't be able to use it. I'll drain all my power and it won't be replaced."

Erza nodded, but kept the sword pointed in his direction. "Which is why Holder magic would be more suited to you. You've done your research." The sword was once more put away. "Once you have finished reading that book I want you to read up on Holder magic. After that we shall see if anything in the storage room can be of any use to you."

"And if not?" he asked, picking the book back up again and finding the last sentence he read.

"Then we'll find a merchant in the town. There are many wizard supply shops in Magnolia. Now continue reading!"

"Right away…"

_**X.X.X.**_

"Ah! W-Where are we?"

"What is this place?"

"This isn't Japan…"

"Who cares where we are ~ nya! All we gotta do is get back ~ nya! I've gotta find Ikuto!"

"I-I-I don't think that's the issue anymore ~ desu."

"Honestly guys, be quiet for one moment."

"Sorry ~ desu."

"Now you guys be quiet and try to stay out of sight, I'm going to ask those people over there for help."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, just let me talk to them… Excuse me!"

"Yes?"

"U-Um c-could you help me out a little? I uh… I have no idea where I am."

"Oh. I'm sorry; I'm kind of busy at the moment."

"Oh… sorry for taking up your time…"

"No, no, not to worry. But tell me, are you from around here? I've never seen you around here before."

"No I'm not."

"Well in that case, go down the street, follow the main roads and at the end you'll come to this town's guild: Fairy Tail. They'll be sure to help you out. I heard that a few days ago they helped a lost traveller new to the town."

"Really? Thank you! Bye!"

"Good luck!"

"What a weirdo ~ nya."

"That's not very nice ~ desu!"

"Who cares ~ nya?"

"Hey, you guys, I thought I told you to be quiet?"

"But what does it matter? Normal people can't see us."

"Are you calling me abnormal?"

"Uh-! No! Of course not! But only you should be able to see us!"

"I don't know… this place seems… sort of strange… So with that in mind just try and stay out of sight. I don't want to draw any attention."

"Hey! Isn't that it? Isn't that Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah…"

"Shall we go in?"

"Yeah."

_**X.X.X.**_

Erza and Ikuto made their way out of the library after putting away all the books used. It had taken all morning, but he had finished reading all the books Erza placed in front of him.

Now she had just announced that they were going into the town to visit a popular wizard shop. Her plan was to buy various items used for Holder magic that Ikuto could practice using and eventually discover which he specialised in. That way he could learn to use magic and stay in the guild and he would not have to train his body to hold magic.

"Wait, I thought you said we were going to the storage room?" he questioned as they entered the guild hall which was noisy and full of guild members as usual.

"I doubt we'll find much of use in there." She stated. "Recently Cana has taken up most space with her beer barrels. Honestly, to drink so much in an undignified manner it's simply not ladylike."

Ikuto bit his tongue to stop any comments leaving his mouth. Thankfully he was successful.

"Erza! Ikuto!"

The Master's voice came from behind and they turned to see the small man. "Heading off?"

"Yes, Master." Erza replied. "To purchase some Holder magic for Tsukiyomi here."

"I see." He said, nodding. "If you can learn to use Holder magic well, Ikuto, I may have to consider giving you a place in the guild."

Ikuto thought for a moment before responding. "Thanks, Master."

He gave the old man a small smile. Over the past few days he'd realised that Fairy Tail was not so bad and he'd met nearly all the members. Ikuto had realised how many types of magic there were as they showed him their abilities. He was particularly impressed with Juvia's water magic that could even cut through rock, though the water mage hadn't been so keen on meeting him. She'd been mumbling something about how weird it was to have her Gray-sama's words from another person. She seemed to be slightly obsessed.

"Good. Now off you go!" he pointed towards the doors.

Just as Ikuto and Erza were about to take their leave said doors slowly opened. Someone on the other side knocked once or twice before stepping in.

"Excuse me?" an awfully familiar voice said. Ikuto stopped in his tracks and let his jaw drop. He felt his breath catch in his throat and his eyes widen at the sight of the small, shy girl with pastel pink hair and honey golden eyes stood in the doorway.

He wasn't just seeing things right? He wasn't just hearing things?

Hinamori Amu brushed her hair out of her face to reveal some slightly rosy red cheeks as everyone stared at her. She was obviously feeling nervous.

However this nervousness disappeared once her eyes caught sight of blue hair. "I-Ikuto!"

He managed to find his voice. "Amu!"

* * *

**Amu had made an entrance! :D**

**The part where it was all just speech... well I kinda tried to not make it obvious by only putting speech in, but it was quite obvious anyway XD**

**Will write the next chapter soon ^^**


	7. Chapter 7

**Another update. You know I haven't really got anything to say right now, so on with the chapter already.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Shugo Chara! or Fairy Tail. I'm not some kind of genius!**

* * *

There were whispers and murmurs throughout the guild hall as Ikuto and Amu stared at each other in stunned silence.

Behind her the double doors swung shut, banging together and echoing off the walls. To her right, three little coloured heads peeked over her shoulder. One was pink, one blue and one blonde with a green clover at the side.

Ikuto couldn't believe his eyes. She was here! Hinamori Amu has here in the last place he expected her to be. He thought he would never see her again.

Her golden eyes were widened and confused and her mouth hung slightly open. She spoke softly to herself. "N-No way… No, this is impossible!"

He couldn't take it any longer. He was about to rush forward and practically crush her in an embrace when a small blue creature floated up from behind her left shoulder and whizzed towards him at the speed of light.

"IIIKUTOOOOO~!"

Ikuto was sure he'd be left with a small bruise when the tiny cat chara hit his chest. Yoru clung onto his uniform collar for dear life and began sobbing. _"Ikutooo! Ikuto ~ nya! Where have you been ~ nya?"_

He looked sympathetically down at his guardian character, a rare genuine smile appearing on his face. "Yoru," he petted the chara's soft, dark blue hair and tried to ignore the fact that his shirt was becoming soaked with Yoru's happy tears, "you've been worried about me?"

"Of course I was worried ~ nya!" Yoru replied, looking back up at his bearer's eyes. "I thought you'd been kidnapped by Easter or something. I was searching through Easter's building and snooping round Mister Director's office every day ~ nya, until Amu found me…"

Ikuto shook his head. "Like a thing like that would ever happen." he told Yoru. Yeah, as if Kazuomi would ever kidnap him. What would he do, lock him away in a cell in the building and force him to go out and take people's heart eggs? The thought was just ridiculous.

Then he looked up at the girl still stood in the doorway. "Amu…"

She opened her mouth to say something to him when a guild member whom Ikuto didn't recognise called out to her. "Hey, pinky, whatcha doing here?"

Another person decided to add their own questions. "How do you know Ikuto?"

"Are you from here?"

"What's your name again?"

"She's pretty cute!"

"What's with the pink hair?"

"Oi! Don't knock the pink hair!" Natsu stood up from where he had been sitting at the bar and held up his fists ready for a fight.

Amu just stood there confused and flustered, trying to turn her head in every direction to see who was asking her questions. The level of noise in the room rose dramatically and before a brawl could start between the Fairy Tail members Ikuto quickly headed over to Amu and pulled her away from the doors.

She jumped when his hand closed around her arm, but for him it was like some sort of relief. These past few days he'd had no familiar faces to turn too, but now she was here. She was the only person he was really close to and they could find a way home together. If they never did… then at least he wouldn't spend every day knowing she was so far away in a whole other universe.

He dragged her away from the spot where Natsu and some drunkard were preparing to launch attacks at each other and manoeuvred through the crowded room to reach some of the empty tables at the back.

Amu dropped down onto the bench and stared at the boy. "Ikuto is that actually you?" she asked in a small, frightened voice.

He nodded, but couldn't resist the urge to smirk at her. "Strange isn't it?"

She swallowed. "Where are we? What happened? How-" she stopped mid-sentence, not knowing what else to say.

Ikuto sat beside her and wondered how to put this. "Amu, we're in another world," the pinkette's mouth hung open again, "somewhere called 'Earthland' where the people can use magic. This is Fairy Tail, a wizard's guild."

Amu blinked once or twice before awkwardly flipping her hair back over her shoulder and scoffing, crossing her arms as she did so. "M-Magic? T-That kind of thing doesn't exist, crazy old man. You think I'd be dumb enough to believe that?"

He smirked at her again. "You don't have to keep up the 'cool' attitude around me. You know it doesn't work." The girl frowned at this and let her hands fall into her lap. "And if you don't believe this is a wizard's guild look over there."

Ikuto directed her attention to the two wizards who had moved towards the bar area. The hot-headed Natsu and the drunk wizard were currently throwing all they had at each other. The unnamed wizard shot some sort of energy at Natsu who responded by firing flame attacks.

"Iron fist of the fire dragon!"

At the dragon slayer attack the other was sent flying through the air and landed over the bar counter. The crowd cheered. That is until Erza made her way through at which point everyone went back to their normal business and Natsu ran off to find the best hiding spot he could.

"That's insane." Amu murmured. "There's no way-"

"Like I said, we're in a different world Amu. Of course there's a way." Ikuto reminded her.

She lowered her head when she couldn't find anything else to say. He decided to move to another topic. "So you found Yoru?"

Amu raised her head again and nodded. "Mm, I was going through the park on my way home from school and I heard him yelling for you, so I promised to help and took him back to my house. That was about two days ago."

"Thank you for looking after him."

"No problem."

Said chara was in the middle of getting comfy on his bearer's shoulder when he heard his name being mentioned. "She refused to go through Easter though ~ nya."

Ikuto glanced sideways at his guardian character. "I'm not surprised."

"But seriously, Ikuto," Amu crossed her arms once more and frowned at him, "don't go disappearing like that again!"

"Oh," he smirked at her and leaned closer, "have you been worried about me, Strawberry?" Her flustered reaction made his smirk grow wider.

"W-W-_What? _W-Why would I be worried about someone like you? You're just troublesome is all and keeping Yoru is hardly easy you know!" she told him, the faintest blush visible on her cheeks. "He's eaten half my food, scratched half my furniture and I went home yesterday to find the house covered in yarn. Not to mention I had to keep him a secret from the Guardians."

Yoru just laughed to himself and with a "Nya" started to wash his ears with his paws, doing so with a look of content on his face.

Ikuto gave his chara a frown, but didn't get any response, whilst Amu sat with steam coming out of her ears as she went on some more about how she didn't like keeping secrets from the Guardians and how it was just a waste of her time to go and help Yoru find his owner.

"_UGH! I can't believe it!" _she exclaimed, throwing her arms above her head. "I go to school, you're there, I meet with the Guardians, you're there, I go out because _suddenly _I have to go and cleanse X-Eggs, you're there, I go home for a nice, peaceful evening, _you're _there and now I somehow get transported to another _world… AND YOU ARE THERE!"_

As she continued, Ikuto watched with fascination, but suddenly Amu's rant was cut off as the doors to the guild burst open (they seemed to be doing that a lot lately), the sound resonating through the hall and a man and a woman (Ikuto seemed to remember them introducing themselves as Bisca and Alzack) entered. Both looked out of breath as though they'd run a great distance to get here and they seemed slightly shocked.

"Everyone!" Bisca shouted. "You've got to come and see this!"

Alzack ran a hand through his long, black hair. "Something really weird is happening!"

Bisca turned on her heel and gestured for everyone to follow them. "Come on!"

Confused, Ikuto raised an eyebrow as immediately the entire guild rushed out the entrance and followed the two down the streets of Magnolia.

"Ikuto? Should we...?" Amu began.

He nodded. "Let's go."

He stood up and grabbed her hand which caused the colour on her cheeks to deepen, but for once he wasn't really paying attention to that. He was curious. Really curious. He, Amu and their guardian characters rushed outside and tried to catch up with the others.

Eventually they reached a small square in the centre of the town. At first Ikuto wasn't sure what everyone was looking at. Then he saw it and he let out a small gasp.

'_What the hell is going on?'_

* * *

**I'm not sure whether that ending is predictable or not. Someone will probably guess what it's all about XD**

**Curiosity killed the cat, Ikuto, I should warn you that. But seriously, no way are you dying in one of _my _fanfics! I would never do such a thing.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter eight! I was so glad to get this done. Like _really_ glad. I'm afraid I rediscovered some old fanfic plans and got distracted and then when I went to write more somehow found myself rewatching Fairy Tail. I still don't know why that happened.**

**Disclaimer: Shugo Chara! and Fairy Tail don't belong to me. I do not own them. Peach Pit and Hiro Mashima do.**

* * *

"W-What?" Amu breathed as she stared up at the sky.

The guardian characters poked their heads over their owners' shoulders.

"That's some strange sky ~ nya." Yoru mumbled.

Ikuto sent a harsh look in Yoru's direction. "Quiet, Yoru!" In response the small cat chara went back to staying out of sight.

Meanwhile everyone around them talked amongst themselves and the ordinary people of Magnolia became frightened and took cover in their homes, shops, whatever as long as it was nearby.

The normally clear, blue sky was now a depressing grey and the dark clouds swirled around a black centre. It was like a black hole only nothing was being sucked in.

"Anima!" Charles said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Heads swivelled in her direction then back to this 'anima'.

"N-No way," Lucy gasped, _"That's _the thing that took this whole town to Edolas?" Her eyes pretty much popped out of their sockets and her mouth hung open in shock.

Stood by her ankle, Happy shook his small, blue head. "Lucy," he began, "you look ugly when you gape like that."

She shut her mouth instantly before sighing at the cat's comment. "You really don't get the situation, do you?"

With the rest of the guild, Levy studied the anima carefully. Large drops of rain were just starting to fall to the ground and made soft tapping noises on the streets and the rooftops. She wiped one that was rolling down the side of her face. "What's an anima doing here in Earthland?"

"Those selfish fools," Natsu growled. Ikuto flinched and hoped he wouldn't burst into flames. "Those Edolas folks must want their magic back." He raised a fist to the sky. _"Well they aint getting any!"_

From somewhere in the middle of the Fairy Tail crowd, Gray facepalmed. "Idiot," he groaned, tired of Natsu's stupidity, "they've got no magic left to _make _any animas."

After this comment everyone was silent, nobody sure what to do next.

To Gray's right Juvia side-stepped closer towards him and broke the silence. Her voice was calm. She was at ease in the rain. With the raindrops falling all around her it was sometimes hard to see that she was there at all. "We're not getting absorbed in." she stated. "Why aren't we being absorbed in?"

"I don't think we're gunna be absorbed." Gajeel told her, his large, muscular arms crossed over his chest and his red eyes narrowed at the strange anima directly above Magnolia.

"What makes you say that?" Levy snapped her head round at him, a look of anger was in her eyes, but anyone could see that it was fake.

"The clouds." He said started to explain. "They're moving in the wrong direction."

At this Levy nodded, but didn't say anything more. They both knew he was right. Usually the clouds surrounding and absorbing magical energy into the anima would move in a clockwise direction. Right now they were moving anticlockwise.

For a while everything was quiet except for the rain falling to the ground and the faint rumble of thunder that could be heard coming closer in the distance and which caused Pantherlily to cower behind Gajeel, his paws firmly holding his ears down to block out the noise.

All of a sudden the thunder became deafening. Everyone flinched and covered their ears at the sudden boom which was now directly overhead.

Behind Amu's shoulder the three guardian characters squealed and held onto each other. Ikuto almost yelped when Yoru jumped out of his skin and dug his claws deep into his bearer's back.

"Y-Yoru!" Ikuto hissed, glad the guild members couldn't hear him. It didn't do any good though. Yoru had a painfully good grip and was too terrified to move away. His little tail was straight as a pin, his ears were flattened and the hair/fur on his head and tail was stood on end.

A flash of lightning lit up the area and was accompanied by another boom of thunder. The rain began to fall heavily and deep puddles were starting to form in the street. At this point everyone was tempted to turn back and run to the safety of the guild until someone shouted out to look at the anima.

Hesitantly everyone did so. The clouds moved much faster than before, making whoever looking at it feel dizzy, and there appeared to be a bright light glowing and growing bigger from the dark centre.

Before anyone could do anything there was a brilliant burst of white light. The people stood below the anima shielded their eyes just in time.

Once they had dared to reopen their eyes they were met with yet another strange sight. The anima was gone, the rain had calmed considerably, the grey clouds were a few shades lighter and stood in front of the large group were five familiar faces. Or familiar to the two people there who weren't from Earthland.

Ikuto felt his body become tense as his eyes met the blonde figure to the left. At the sight of all five Amu however felt like dancing with joy.

"You guys!" she beamed. Her charas also perked up and floated from behind the safety of Amu's shoulder.

In the wet street stood Kukai, Yaya, Tadase, Nagihiko and Rima.

"Hinamori," Kukai was the first to speak and rubbed the back of his head with his hand, "what in the _world _is going on here?"

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**Nawww X3 I would love to see Yoru all fluffed up! He'd be so cute!**

**So we have an anima and some more of the guardians! But that won't be all. Oh no. So please review and meanwhile _I'll_ be sure to start working on the next chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Well... I _could _give some excuse as to why I was late updating... but what would the point in that be? The main thing is I didn't forget about this story! :D And I keep forgetting to say thank you to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, favouriting and adding this fic to their story alerts. I was so surprised to find reviews in the first place. Thank you!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. I also do not own Shugo Chara! Clear? Good.**

**Warning: Prepare for some slightly OOC Amu :L and possibly Makarov...**

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"Well I-I-uh…" Amu stuttered and stumbled over her words as the Guardians and the Guild stared at her, all awaiting a response. She had intended to explain everything in a few sentences, but when she wasn't entirely sure herself what was happening that became a bit of a challenge.

Meanwhile the members of Fairy Tail had no clue what was going on. The only person they really knew here was Ikuto.

As Kukai opened his mouth to say something to Amu, Erza marched up to the group of five with a hand on her sword just in case. She raised an eyebrow before at them addressing the sort of red-headed one. He was the only one who had talked since they got here.

"And you are?" she said. To the Guardians she screamed authority, but she was also intimidating. "May we be of assistance?"

"Uh…" Kukai ran a hand through his rusty coloured hair and took a deep breath. "I'm don't know, one moment we were looking for Hinamori over there and then the sky became all weird…" he stared up at the spot in the sky where the anima had been. "Next thing we knew we were here. No idea how it happened." He finished, shrugging his shoulders.

Once she had taken this in, Erza glanced back at Ikuto and Amu. "Do you know these people?"

Ikuto opened his mouth to answer, but Amu was quicker. She nodded confidently, her bubblegum pink hair bouncing as she did so. "Yes! They're my friends from our world!"

At this Erza raised an eyebrow. Amu had been in this world for less than an hour and she hadn't properly introduced herself yet. The requip mage didn't know her at all and was still wary of the newcomer.

"You know them, Tsukiyomi?" she questioned. He both nodded in response.

"We should take them back to the guild." Ikuto told her.

"I agree!" Levy came up beside Erza. "I still need to figure out what's going on. Anyone who comes from the other world should stay with us."

Erza considered this and soon also agreed. They led the five strangers back through the wet streets to Fairy Tail.

_**X.X.X.**_

"Souma Kukai, previous Jack's chair of the Guardians." Kukai introduced himself to the Fairy Tail master. He looked around at the guild hall he was stood in and whistled. "You've got a pretty cool building here!"

In the hall every Fairy Tail member was listening in as the Guardians introduced themselves. From his seat at the bar, Natsu pointed at the former Jack and grinned. "I like this kid!" he said as he extinguished the flames that he had been playing with in his hands.

Kukai grinned back and gave him a thumbs-up. "Thanks! Those are some awesome flames you got there by the way."

"Man, don't encourage him…" Gray muttered. He was sat on the barstool next to Natsu and had been watching the scene with interest as he slowly sipped at his beer.

"What did you say, Ice Princess?" Natsu jumped up and glared at the ice mage.

"Cool it, hothead!"

"You wanna go?"

"Honestly, can you not go five minutes without starting something?"

"You scared, droopy eyes?"

"This is why people spread rumours about our guild, squinty eyes!"

"You sure? Last time I heard this wasn't a guild for perverts!"

"Who you callin' pervert, you-"

"Gray, where are your clothes?" Mira interrupted the conversation. Once looking down and realising that the only thing he wore were his boxer shorts, Gray jumped off his stool and went to hunt down the rest of his clothes, muttering curse words under his breath as he did so.

Meanwhile the master moved on to the other Guardians in front of him.

"Hotori Tadase. I'm the King's chair of the Guardians. Pleased to meet you." Tadase smiled warmly at Makarov, one that had Amu's insides flipping uncontrollably. She was soon sucked into his pink, sparkly, princely aura.

"Fujisaki Nagihiko, the current Jack's chair." Nagi also smiled and gave his name before pointing to a bored-looking Rima who stood beside him. "And this is Mashiro Rima, the Queen's chair."

Rima shot him a deadly look. "I can give my own name, thank you." She spoke dangerously lowly whilst she attempted to bore holes into Nagihiko's head.

"Just trying to be of help, Rima-chan." He said, not at all bothered by her glare. At this Rima made a huffing noise, crossed her arms and turned her back to him.

"And I'm Yuiki Yaya!" Yaya jumped on the spot as she said her name. "I'm the Ace and I really love sweet and cute things!" she added. She sounded unbelievably childish, but no one seemed to mind. "Though being the Ace chair isn't as awesome as being the other chairs." Yaya pouted. "Amu-chi gets the best jobs out of all of us."

"'Chi'?" Cana repeated, raising an eyebrow. She didn't appear to be too impressed with Yaya's honorific.

Lisanna and her older sister, Mia, on the other hand had sparkles in their eyes. "Aah! Kawaii!"

"Hmm…" Makarov ignored the guild members and put a hand on his chin, taking a few seconds to stare at each newcomer. "Guardians?" he eventually said. "What kind of group are the Guardians?"

Tadase then stepped forward, ready to answer the question. As the leader of the group, the King's chair, he thought it best for him to speak. "The Guardians are the student council of our school, Seiyo Academy. We look after the student's privacy, help make decisions, tend to the grounds-"

"And we protect everyone's heart eggs!" Yaya jumped in rather loudly halfway through Tadase's explanation, earning a number of different reactions from all who were listening.

At this a giant question mark appeared over just about everyone's heads, except those in the room who were familiar with the concept of heart eggs. Tadase jumped at the interruption, Nagihiko sweatdropped, Kukai facepalmed, Amu stiffened and Ikuto just stared blankly at the younger girl.

After a few seconds of silence had passed, Rima rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Baka." She said in monotone.

Yaya scratched the back of her head and laughed awkwardly. "Eh… sorry about that…"

"You idiot," Rima frowned at her, "nobody knows about that."

As the Ace struggled to come up with a reply, Kukai shrugged and strained a smile. "Well, I guess it doesn't really matter. We're in a different world now." he pointed out.

"I suppose…" Amu said quietly. The expression on her face told them she was thinking about this hard.

"Would you mind explaining to us what a heart egg is?" the Master brought them out from their own little conversation.

"Well," Nagihiko began, "in our world, every child has a heart's egg. The egg is kept in the child's heart. It's invisible, but it still exists. It contains the child's dreams and wishes and if these dreams are strong enough it will turn into a guardian egg that hatched into a guardian character."

Once Nagi had finished speaking, Tadase took over. "Guardian characters are little creatures that represent the dream they were born from. They're the person you want to be. Only people with guardian eggs or those who believe they exist can see them."

The members of Fairy Tail began to whisper amongst themselves, some believing these words, some not and some asking what kind of crazy world Earth must be. Most were doubtful though.

"Nice little kids' story!"

"What kind of nonsense is that?"

"No way is that possible!"

"Are the people in your world that easy to fool?"

"HEY!" Amu suddenly snapped as she glared at the people of Fairy Tail. Ikuto frowned at her unusual outburst and considered trying to calm her down until he noticed the dangerous look in her eyes. The Guardians looked speechless. "Who do _you_ think you are to say that?" she continued. "In my world, the idea of magic is ridiculous. I reacted the same way as you all did just now when I was told that magic existed. Look how wrong I was! And I won't stand for it if someone tells me that my would-be-self is stupid or nonsense or that it doesn't exist at all because I know that it does! Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there!"

When Amu had calmed down, she looked to see their reaction. The Guardians nodded in approval; from inside her egg-holder (which was attached to her side like always) Ran, Miki and Su smiled up proudly at her and Dia's egg began to sparkle, but went unnoticed by her or her charas. The Fairy Tail members were either smiling or acted as though nothing had happened.

Ikuto let himself smile as he looked over at her. _'She's changed… _so_ much… She wouldn't have defended her guardian characters like that when I first knew her.'_

"Indeed." The Master wandered over to Amu's side and spoke directly to his guild. "As we know, everything starts with the heart. Our magic starts with a person's heart and very soul. Our characters, what makes a person who they are, and our wishes also come from the heart. In their world, they believe in their wishes to the point where it is possible to gain a representation of them. You could call it a form of magic. I would hope that you all believe in your own wishes just as strongly. I believe every word these children have said and I would be disappointed to think that my brats do not. You must keep an open mind." He paused to let everyone absorb his words before turning back to the five from Earthland. "Now," he spoke cheerfully, "I'd like to hear more about these Guardian Characters."

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**Uh... Amu's little rant... I felt embarrassed typing that up -.- It's proof that I've been watching Shugo Chara too much.**

**So yeah please review and look out for the next chapter. ^^**


	10. Chapter 10

**I'M BACK! (for now...)**

**I'm so sorry for not updating in like 3 months! D: Unfortunatley I was having some problems with my beloved laptop T-T BUT! It seems to be working now, so I've had the chance to get writing and update! So between that and the dreaded block (-_-) getting on with this story has been a problem, but I refuse to just give up. I will finish this story if it kills me.**

**And I've noticed some more followers and favourites since the last update. Thank you all so much ^^**

**Enjoy chapter ten! And remember: I do not own Fairy Tail or Shugo Chara! Nothing really changes there.**

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"This place is huge ~ desu!" Su whispered mainly to herself, casting her eyes over the huge guild. Around her the other charas were happily floating round and exploring their new surroundings and the place they would call 'home' until they found a way to get back to their own world.

"It's like a castle!" Ran exclaimed, eyes wide and shining brightly.

Miki nodded in agreement as she expertly sketched the place on her sketchpad. She planned to get down as many drawings of the Fairy Tail guild as possible so that they would have some memories of their time in Earthland when they returned home. To Miki, Earthland was an artist's dream. Beautiful scenery unspoiled by large cities, quiet towns with no traffic and greenery everywhere she looked. Yes, Miki was quite at home here, though it still couldn't quite compare to the surroundings she was used to.

There was a loud groan from somewhere on the upper floor as a very sleepy cat chara awakened. Yoru, who was led rather comfortably on the wooden railings, lifted his tried head up from his arms and looked over his shoulder at the pesky guardian characters who dared disturb his slumber.

"You two are _noisy ~ nya!" _he half-yelled at them as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with a heavy paw. _"I'm trying to sleep ~ nya!"_

"Aww don't be such a spoilsport ~ dechu." Pepe frowned at him, pouting and folding her tiny arms.

Daichi, who was stood on the railing beside her, looked at her with a deadpanned expression. "Whose idea was it to come up here anyway?" he murmured. He wasn't exactly enthusiastic about spending some time with Pepe. She wore him out too easily. He still wondered how on Earth Kukai was able to put up with Yaya all the time.

"I don't care!" Yoru glared at the two of them and twisted himself round to face them. "Just leave me alone and stay out of my- _nya!" _the small cat let out a yowl as he was suddenly lifted up into the air by his tail.

"Yoru."

"Huh?" he turned and found himself staring into two deep blue eyes. "Oh, Ikuto!"

Ikuto rolled his eyes and kept a firm grip on his guardian character. "You're so noisy." he murmured. He tossed the chara onto his shoulder before he began walking away from the railings and down onto the ground floor.

"I was just trying to catch up on some sleep ~ nya." Yoru grumbled. He rested his head on Ikuto's collar and used it as a cushion.

Ikuto didn't reply to the chara and instead made his way out if the back of the guild, going through the back exit, past the swimming pool area and finding himself on a narrow strip of grass next to the beach.

Yoru gasped a little in wonder at the sight of the sea that shone under the midday sun. On the sandy beach stood Erza who had been waiting patiently for him. He found himself a little wary as he approached her. Even Ikuto thought she was a scary, scary woman.

Once he had come closer to her, Erza unsheathed a sword that had been attatched to her belt and held it out for him. "Take this." she instructed. Ikuto took the metal blade and examined it, but said nothing and simply waited for Titania to explain further.

"This sword can transform." she began. "By changing its form in battle you are able to use more than one type of magic. It has seven different abilities that can be used: fire, water, ice, air, earth, lightning and the seventh allows you to increase the speed at which you move. Of course if you choose it can just be used as an ordinary weapon."

Ikuto stared at the sword in his hands. Was such a simple item really this powerful? He wondered how much training it would take to be able to control each ability.

"Woah!" Yoru had finally moved himself and stared at the item, his eyes somehow doubling in size. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen ~ nya!"

Ikuto ignored his chara's words and glanced back up at Erza. "How do I change it?"

Erza folded her arms. What could have been a small grin twitched at the corners of her lips. "Oh, that's easy," she stated, "you just have to 'will' the weapon to change forms. You must clearly know which ability you wish to utilise and wish it to transform."

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow at her. She wasn't just joking round with him, right?

"Honestly." she nodded. "That's how this type of magic works. You can't be trained to hold magic within your body, so this is the alternative." Erza gestured to the sword and continued her explanation. "That sword has been combined with several types of lacrima, hence the different abilities it can use, which gives it magical power. While it's a method that was mainly used in Edolas not so long ago, it's not uncommon to find similar objects here that work by the same principal."

Whilst Ikuto was still taking in this information, a sword appeared in Erza's hand and she readied herself for a battle. "Your training begins now, Tsukiyomi."

Taken aback, he opened his mouth to protest, but the woman was too fast for him and he narrowly missed the blade that swung his way.

"Come on, Tsukiyomi! You can't just slack around all day!"

He dodged another attack that would've got him across the chest had he not been fast enough. He held the sword properly, finding a position with it that worked for him. He firmly gripped the sword and swung it round so that it collided with Erza's and blocked her attack.

It was at this point that she decided to requip. There was a flash of light and within seconds Erza had requipped into her Lightning Empress armour.

Luckily Ikuto was incredibly fast on his feet and was able to duck and dive out of the way of several lightning attacks, all the while cursing as he tried to get his sword to change forms.

"Damn it!" he growled in frustration. He grit his teeth as he tried to 'will' the weapon to change into its lightning form.

"Ikuto ~ nya!" However he wouldn't let himself get distracted by his guardian character. "Ikuto, character transform?"

"No, Yoru," he muttered, concentrating on Erza's next moves, "you're not doing a character transformation with me right now."

"Character transformation?"

It seems Erza had overheard them talking. Though she was still working on fighting her opponent, they didn't miss the look of pure confusion on her face.

Ikuto took this opportunity to rush foward towards her, all the while wishing that the sword he was using would change last minute. _'Please...' _he thought. _'Please, let this work!'_

To his surprise instead of changing into a lightning sword, for a split-second the world suddenly became a blur. The scenery around him became fuzzy, almost as if someone had spilled liquid on a watercolour painting. He felt the air rush past him, ruffling his hair badly, and he felt slightly dizzy and light-headed. But as soon as all this had started, it stopped and a very confused Ikuto found himself stood at the end of the beach where the sand met the thick grass.

He put a hand on his head and looked around to see Erza standing exactly where she had been a moment ago, only now she was a good few metres away. The spear she held was still raised as she had been about to try and beat him. She blinked once or twice, lowered the spear and stepped backwards, unable to fathom what she just saw.

Ikuto stared at his sword. _'The heck?'_

And then he realised. Didn't this sword have the power to increase his speed? It looked like he would need some more training before he could fully control which ability he used.

But he couldn't forget the battle. Whilst his opponent was distracted he raised the sword and charged towards her. As soon as he began running that odd sensation began again. The world blurred, the cool air whipped past and in less than a second he was right behind Erza. Ignoring the faint feeling in his head, he used the back of his sword he pushed her to the ground. Erza gasped, hit the floor hard and turned over to see Ikuto standing over her, the shock and the confusion never leaving her face.

"So." Ikuto spoke. "Does this mean my training is done for the day?"

It took a few second to process his words, but Erza soon managed to find her voice. "Yes," she said as she picked herself up off the floor and changed back into her usual armour, "I think that's enough for today."

She stood up straight and brushed the sand off of her skirt, all the while to get over the fact that she had actually been beaten.

The younger male followed her as she walked back to the guild.

"Oh and by the way, Tsukiyomi," Erza broke the silence between them, "I'll be wanting payment for that sword."

That made him stop in his tracks and once more look down at the weapon. "How the heck am I supposed to pay for this if I haven't got any money?" he whispered to himself.

Yoru floated over to him and rested on the edge of the blade. "Beats me ~ nya."

He breathed heavily and shook his head. "I'm gunna need to get a job."

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**Could it be..? Could it be that I actually got this chapter done? Yay! ^^**

**So Ikuto managed to defeat Erza. Well done, Ikuto. As you can tell by now the next chapter Ikuto is on the search for a job. This should be interesting.**

**Also I'm sorry that the other Guardians weren't in this chapter :( but they're back next chapter ^^**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	11. Chapter 11

**I got something done! :D I was so happy to actually get to update. My laptop still isn't working properly and I need a new one, so the whole I writing and uploading of this chapter was done on my phone which isn't really ideal :L so this may not be the best chapter. I apologise for any OOCness in advance.**

**Anyways, here's chapter 11.**

**I still don't own Shugo Chara! or Fairy Tail.**

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Ikuto rubbed his tired eyes for the millionth time and stares once more at the board in front of him.

For about an hour now he had been scanning through the numerous job requests attached to it that the people of Fiore had sent into to Fairy Tail and so far not one had caught his attention. Not one had yet jumped out at him, leapt out from between the many pieces of paper and made his mind go: "Yes! This one! This job looks perfect for me! Lets go so I can earn some money to pay off my debt to Fairy Tail!"

He ran a hand through his soft hair and groaned loudly in frustration. He had to pick one today. He had to. Since Erza had told him he needed to repay money for the sword she had given him he'd been putting off finding a job request for three days. During that time he'd realised that he should really earn some jewels to repay Mirajane as well. From the day Ikuto had arrived in Magnolia he had been getting all his food and drink every morning, noon and night from the bar instead of going out and buying it for himself like a normal person. As well as this he figured it was probably wise to start looking for places to rent nearby. Things weren't looking promising and he'd begun to realise that if nothing changed soon he and the Guardians who had found themselves stuck in this world with him may very well be stranded here permanently.

"Nya~"

Ikuto cursed under his breath at his guardian character for breaking his concentration.

Yoru was lounging on his left shoulder as usual and also as usual he was poking his nose into everything that Ikuto did.

"Ikuto ~ nya, these jobs are dead boring ~ nya..."

"Doesn't matter, Yoru." was his monotone reply.

Shaking his head, Yoru actually shifted himself off of his bearer's shoulder and went to rummage through the pieces of paper on the request board, examining each one as he went.

He picked a few up, sorting through the requests. "Herbs ~ nya... Catering... Body-guarding ~ nya... Oh! Ikuto!" Eyes suddenly becoming twice as wide and twice as shiny, Yoru firmly held one of the requests in his paws and offered it to Ikuto. "This one! This one ~ nya!"

Raising an eyebrow, Ikuto took the paper from his chara who floated beside him with a hopeful expression.

He cast his eyes over it once before signing and pinning it back to the board. "No."

_"What?"_ Yoru's face fell. _"Ikuto!"_

"Yoru, we are not going all the way to the Northern continent to bing back five stupid fish." He said sternly. "What we want is something simple, close to Magnolia. Something that will help me pay off everything I owe everyone."

_"But Ikuto ~ nya!"_

The teen didn't reply. Meanwhile Yoru made his way back over to his owner's shoulder and sat there to sulk for a while.

"Hey! Ikuto!"

Ikuto turned his head at he sound of such a familiar voice. His first reaction was to smirk. "Amu."

Amu bounded over to him, followed closely by her three charas.

"Something you want, Amu?" He asked her.

The girl shrugged half-heartedly. "We've been wondering where you've been disappearing to lately. I haven't seen you all day."

At this his smirk grew wider, amusement dancing in his deep blue eyes. "Sounds like someone was missing me." He deliberately leaned in closer, allowing his warm breath to brush over her ear. "A lot..."

Immediately Amu jumped back a few feet rapidly shook her head. "AH! NO! No not at all!" She blushed furiously and the sight was so humorous to Ikuto that he just couldn't help but laugh at her flustered reaction.

"I hit a weak spot didn't I?" He smirked again, just waiting for her to get it.

It took a few moments, but Amu's cherry-red cheeks told him that she got the message. "Stupid pervert!"

"Ikuto's a pervert!" Ran cried and pointed an accusing pom-pom (?) at him.

"Ikuto-kun's rather forward ~ desu." Su commented seriously. She gave him a hard look that didn't go unnoticed by the blue-haired boy. He merely chuckled at her.

Miki however didn't say anything about him and instead continued working on her latest masterpiece in her sketchbook.

"That's enough, girls." Amu shook her head once her blush had calmed down and wandered closer to the board. "Hey, what are all these?" She wondered aloud, her brow creasing as she looked over the papers.

"They're job requests." Ikuto explained. "People who can't use magic send them in asking mages to do tasks that they're unable to do themselves."

"Ooh... So... Why are you looking at them?" She questioned.

Ikuto breathed out heavily. "I need a job. I have money I need to repay to... someone..." He trailed off, not wanting to think about his reasons. Those kinds of thoughts always led to what might happen to him if he didn't repay the money to Erza soon. He shuddered slightly. He didn't want to get on Titania's bad side.

Reminding himself that he couldn't avoid this any longer, Ikuto went back to looking at the requests. There were many that he didn't like. Virtually none that he did.

"Care to help, Strawberry?" He muttered, attention purely now on the task at hand.

"Sure." Amu nodded and began searching again.

A few minutes later, Ikuto's concentration was once more broken.

"Ikuto," Amu poked his shoulder to make sure he would listen to her and then held up a request in front of his face, "here. Sound good?"

Praying that he may have actually found something, he looked over the request Amu had presented him with. He read it once. Then twice. Then yet again to make sure he had the details absolutely right.

It... sounded perfect. It wasn't too far away, it sounded like he could actually complete it and the reward was 50,000 jewels. That was more than enough to cover what he owed Erza for the sword.

"Yes." Was all he said, taking the job out of Amu's hand. She gave him a smug smile and folded her arms.

"How long would you have taken finding something if it wasn't for me?" She asked coyly.

Resisting the urge to smirk at the girl, Ikuto shrugged before walking towards the bar. "I probably would found something quicker if you hadn't come and wasted my time."

Behind him he heard her start ranting and raving and only when he was sure she couldn't see his face did he let himself chuckle at her reaction.

When he arrived at the bar he placed the job request on the counter and called over Mira.

"Found a job, Ikuto?" She greeted him with her usual warm smile.

"I'll leave tomorrow." He told her as she read the details.

"Hm, this sounds fine..." She began. "But you should probably bring someone with you as it's your first mission."

Ikuto was about to respond when Amu popped out from behind him and interrupted. "I'll go along with him." she offered, looking from Ikuto to Mira and then back again.

"Idiot," he chuckled, "Mira means I should take a mage along with me. Are you a mage, Amu?"

The girl was silent.

"Thought not."

"S-Shut up..."

"Anyway I'll find someone," he lowered his voice, "I hope..."

"OOI!" There was a shout from someone across the room. Those at the bar turned to see Natsu Dragneel rummaging through the masses of papers at the request board.

The Salamander huffed before dropping his hands to his sides and frowning at the object in front of him. "Man... Who took that treasure guarding request from earlier?"

"Let it go, Natsu." Happy flew up next to him and hung his head low. "It's gone."

Natsu let out a sigh. "Our food expenses..."

"Aye..."

Having listened in on their conversation, Ikuto glanced down at the job in his hand. The job asked for a mage to accompany the carriage that carried a collection of rare gemstones and treasure and defend it from any robbers if necessary.

_''Treasure guarding request'?'_

Having another read of the request, Ikuto again looked over at Natsu who was trying to pick out something else to earn some money.

Perhaps it was out of slight guilt (or not, Ikuto didn't know what it was), but the blue-haired teen for some reason strolled over to the Dragon Slayer and held up the job he had chosen.

"Hey," he ignored Natsu's jump when he spoke. He was still unused to being around two guys who sounded exactly alike, especially if one of them happened to be called Gray. "Is this the job you're looking for?"

Recovering from his initial shock, Natsu made a sound of confusion and read the paper that was being shown to him. There were furrows in his brow as he went over each letter. "Yeah... Yeah this is the one ." Then he grinned, something Ikuto wasn't expecting to see. "Guess you got there before me, right?"

Taken aback a little by Natsu's cheery attitude, Ikuto spoke slowly. "I suppose... But, anyway, I was wondering if you'd help me out. You're interested in this job, right? Well I've been told I should go on it with an actual wizard." Mentally Ikuto sighed. When he arrived here he hadn't planned on mixing with the mages of Fairy Tail. "Come with me and we an split the reward."

At this Natsu's grin increased in size. "Seriously?" He questioned. "I thought you wanted to keep your distance?"

"Well that really hasn't been working out," he said bitterly.

His muttering though went unnoticed by Natsu who slung an arm around the new guy. "Be here by eleven tomorrow morning and we'll head out around then!"

Ikuto winced under the weight of the Dragon Slayer's strong arm. "O-Okay."

"Natsu!" Happy flapped his wings towards them and grinned hugely. "We won't lose our food expenses !"

"Aye!"

"Right, Ikuto?"

"A-Aye..."


	12. Chapter 12

**Well, here's chapter twelve! I'm actually very pleased with this one, though I had hoped to get more into it. But everything I planned will appear in the next chapter or so.**

**And with the last and some other chapters, people have brought up character transformation and character changes in their reviews or messages. I'm not telling you exactly what's happening with those, but they will come up in the near future.**

**I own nothing! Enjoy!**

* * *

Ikuto winced as another bump in the road caused his body to jolt upwards and crash back down onto his seat. Hard.

The other persons in the carriage though didn't seem to show their discomfort as much as he did, he noticed as he shifted to try and find a more comfortable position.

He turned his head to the right and gave a sideways glare to the man next to him.

Natsu Dragneel and his blue Exceed, Happy, sat side by side gorging themselves on whatever mountains of food they had brought along. Why on Earth were these guys so worried about there food expenses? They seemed to have enough to last them a lifetime.

"You two..." Ikuto began through gritted teeth. They paused, food still in their cheeks, making them look like hamsters. "That food isn't going to last if you keep up like this."

Natsu took a look at the chicken drumstick in his hand and then back at his temporary partner. "If we run out before we get there I'll buy some more." He said simply.

"Acalypha's a merchant town. I bet they sell all kinds of fish there!" Happy joined in cheerfully before taking another bite of the trout in his paws.

"And cake." Another voice added from outside the carriage.

"Well that may be..." Ikuto told the voice. "_But why exactly did you have to come along?"_ He questioned angrily, his normal calm and cool demeanour completely breaking down.

The voice, or more specifically: _Erza's_ voice, spoke back. "Because," she said, peering back over her shoulder and into the carriage as she held tightly onto the reins of the horses, "I don't believe that Natsu is the best partner for your first mission."

"Tell me about it..." The blonde woman known as 'Lucy' said wearily, remembering her very first mission with the Dragon Slayer.

Ikuto looked over at her and rolled his eyes, though she didn't seem to notice. She was yet another accomplice on this job that wasn't welcome to him.

"And anyway," she crossed her arms under her large chest and frowned deeply at said Dragon Slayer, "why did you bring me on this job?" She demanded, a small vessel bursting on the side of her head.

"Uuah!" Happy yelled, suddenly abandoning his fish and hiding behind Natsu. _"Natsu_," he wailed, "Lucy's acting scary! Lucy, please don't try to eat me!"

At this Lucy's jaw dropped. She glared at the Exceed with fire in her eyes._ "I'M NOT TRYING TO EAT YOU, CAT!"_

Ignoring the commotion between the other two, Natsu swallowed some more of his food. "Why can't I bring you on a job, Lucy?" He asked, genuinely confused. "You're my partner!" He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and gave her one of his widest grins. "I can't go on a job without you."

"N-Natsu..." Lucy stuttered, at a loss for words. She had become used to the strong bonds at Fairy Tail long ago, but every now and then, Natsu would just a stump her with a statement like that.

Too busy watching Natsu and Lucy, Ikuto jumped when he heard Gray's irritated voice from the other side of the carriage.

"I can understand Lucy, but what made you feel the need to bring _me_ along, Flamebrain?"

Next to the celestial mage, Gray fumed at the pink-haired male.

Natsu only looked at him with a blank expression and replied, "You're part of my team."

_"That's your reasoning?"_

"Why not?"

_"You're insane!"_

The laid-back attitude gone, Natsu's voice became deadly low. "Say that again, Ice Princess!"

As they got started on their latest brawl, Ikuto ran a hand through his hair and leaned back, only to move forwards again when the carriage jerked about again.

He muttered a few curses under his breath. To his left there was a faint giggle.

"What's so funny?" He asked quietly, closing his eyes.

"You." Amu smiled.

"Well you did say you'd come along." Ikuto said to her. "I knew to expect you here."

"Quite rightfully." Amu nodded.

"But, Amu," he whispered weakly, "_why_ exactly are they all here?"

Ikuto lifted a hand and pointed to his left where the rest of the Guardians were cramped up against the wall.

"...A-ano..."

"Ikuto ~ nya."

"Yes, Yoru?"

"How much longer are we gunna be in here ~ nya?"

The teen shook his head and faintly answered, "That's what I'd like to know, Yoru."

"Well, we don't know that guild very well," Kukai pointed out, awkwardly attempting to rub the back of his head with his hand, only to elbow Nagi in the side who let out a small 'oof' in pain.

"And as Hinamori-san mentioned she was coming along with you," Tadase smiled, only this one was fake. He didn't like being in the same room (let alone crowded small carriage) with Ikuto, but if it meant he could spend the day with his beloved Amu-chan he'd put up with it for her sake.

"We thought it would be better to hang around with you rather than round people we didn't know all day!" Yaya finished their explanation with a huge childish grin. She then proceeded to scoff down the large chocolate bar she had brought with her.

"Though I do hope the trip end soon." Nagihiko voiced what they were all thinking. "Ne, Rima-chan?"

Folding her short arms and giving him a dirty look from underneath her waterfall of hair, Rima was less than impressed that he had even tried to talk to her.

"Stay away from me, best friend stealer." was all she said.

Nagihiko merely shook his purple head and chuckled in return.

_**X.X.X**_

In an isolated, rarely visited area on the outskirts of Magnolia, stood a single, lonesome house.

It was out of place amongst the tall grasses and the tall, rugged hills that sheltered it and inside of it lived a single person.

That one inhabitant of the house gave a yell of frustration and threw the book they had been working from at the wall in front of them.

'Failed.'

Once calming down and reorganising the space in which they lived and worked, they picked up that book which had moments ago been carelessly thrown in a fit of anger and began flipping through its contents for perhaps the millionth time in their life.

Once realising where they has possibly gone wrong and outlining ways to avoid it, they took a breath, walked over to the device which they had spent the past four or five years constructing and yet again pulled the lever.

Their creation fired up, whirring into life and shortly after it was warmed up a pale blue glow began to surround it.

Like the previous attempts, they could only stand back and hope that their attempt at contact was successful.

* * *

**Well... I hope it wasn't stop much to have all the Guardians there ^^'''**

**And that ending will make sense. In time ^^**


	13. Chapter 13

**So many exams... But I got another chapter done :3 so that was a success.**

**This is more of a filler, so not the most exciting in the world -.- I apologise.**

**And also I must thank the reviewer who pointed out that in the last chapter Natsu didn't get motion sickness in the carriage.****_ I can't believe I forgot about that! _****I even planned for him to get sickness in the carriage. And I forgot -.-'''**

**But the carriage is back in the next chapter, so I'll be sure to redeem myself and come up with an explanation for his eating whilst on transportation.**

* * *

It was late afternoon when the team arrived in Acalypha. After a few hours being caged and squashed up in that small, stuffy carriage, they all hopped out at the first opportunity and stretched their cramped up muscles before getting to the job at hand.

The town was, as Happy had said, a merchant town and therefore was buzzing with life. There were many shops along the cobbled streets and wooden stalls at the sides of the pathways selling all kinds of goods. You could find almost anything at Acalypha, though it would take you a while to push through the masses on a particularly busy day like this. Apparently it was the time for sales to be popping up and about.

Navigating through the town wasn't easy, a fact that Team Natsu were rather surprised with. They'd been in this area before and although it had been a quiet day during their visit, they hadn't expected this many people to be out and about on an average day such as this one.

After a while they found their way to the client's shop; a jewellers near the centre of the town on the high street. He had been quite an... _aggressive_ client. His words had been harsh and demanding and he'd told them all very clearly that if he found out - and he _would_ - that so much as one gemstone had been scratched or if there was one smudge on his carefully cast gold then he'd cut their reward by 50% and go to Lamia Scale for his next job request.

At this warning, Natsu had immediately jumped up, took a hold of one of the chests containing the priceless items and swore that they'd get the job done without a hitch. With the threat of his changing guilds still ringing in their ears, Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Ikuto hurriedly began loading the heavy chests onto the back of their carriage before the client could make any more demands.

Once their work here was done, they decided to regroup with the rest of their temporary team and head back to Magnolia before it became too late.

The Guardians and guardian characters were easy enough to find. They had been out in the streets taking a look around all the stalls. In the crowds finding them should've been a difficulty, but when two of them have pink and purple hair and there are charas floating above their heads it was pretty hard not to notice them.

Erza on the other hand was nowhere to be seen. They were sure she had been with them in the jewellers shop - she'd led them there in the first place. But after ten minutes or so of searching, Titania turned up herself and told them she was simply making sure everything was in order at the client's shop. They all accepted her reasons, however Ikuto was doubtful. She looked back over her shoulder the way she came twice after making her excuses and Ikuto faintly remembered seeing a patisserie across the street from the jewellers.

Gathering together around the carriage, Erza told them that they now had to make a decision.

They could either go and start the journey back to Magnolia now as the horses had fed, drank and were ready to set off again, or they could stay in a hotel in Acalypha overnight and leave in the morning.

Most of the group protested after hearing the second option. They had the treasure they were supposed to deliver and were keen to get this job over and done with, but Erza, being in favour of option two, told them that it was wiser to stay the night. It was almost sunset and if they left now about half of their journey would be in the dark which was when robbers and bandits liked to lurk amongst the shadows, preying on whoever travelled the roads at night. No one was interested in fighting any robbers who wanted to steal their treasure and if a fight did occur they would prefer it to be done in the daylight, so unsurprisingly every one of them gave in to Titania who nodded and went off to reserve rooms for them in the nearest hotel.

And so Ikuto was now lying on his comfortable bed in the room he shared with Kukai, Nagihiko and Tadase.

They weren't in the room right now. They were downstairs in the lobby, most likely trying to avoid him. He was still technically their enemy and since he had left some years ago for Europe, he and Tadase hadn't exactly been on good terms. The blonde had badly misunderstood almost all of what had happened back then and a giant rift had formed between them despite them being close in their childhood years.

Ikuto breathed heavily and turned his head to the side. It had started to rain outside. Unusual. There had been no heavy rain forecasted, but by the looks of the dark clouds drifting overhead it looked like there could even be a storm during the night.

As the fat drops of rain hit the window, Ikuto was relieved that they hadn't chosen to leave the town after all. Travelling in this would be a challenge and he wanted the job to go as smoothly as possible.

He sat up from his position on the bed and peered out the glass. His bed was up against the wall, giving him easy access to the window.

The streets were dark now. It wasn't even night yet, but the sudden clouds had blocked out any sunlight and visibility was low.

Looking out, Ikuto was reminded of the Guardian's arrival in Earthland. He remembered going out in the pouring rain to find that... _thing_ in the sky which brought the familiar faces to this world.

He thought about this for some time, that the anima brought the rainfall with it - and pretty hard rainfall too.

Had there not been a period of rainfall before Ikuto arrived in Magnolia? Was there some kind of correlation? If another anima occurred then what would it bring? _Who_ would it bring? Why had himself and the Guardians been the only ones to be transported across universes?

Shaking his head in a feeble attempt to get rid of all these questions, Ikuto drew the curtains shut and looked in the opposite direction. What good was it to think about all this right now?

Wondering what events tomorrow might bring, Ikuto tried to settle down for the evening.


	14. Chapter 14

**Okay so to start off: Happy new year! ^^ I had meant to get this chapter done and up last night, but I had to go and be with the family for new year's eve. So also blame any typos or other mistakes on the fact that I'm still rather tired.**

**I own nothing. I don't actually know why I bother with disclaimers. It's fanfiction! They're not needed!**

* * *

"Okay, Natsu, get in."

"No!" Natsu began to loudly protest. "I can't get on that!"

Erza frowned at the young man and pointed at the vehicle.

"Natsu," she said deadly slowly, "you made it here by carriage therefore you will make it back by carriage."

"B-But!"

There was the sound of metal scraping upon metal as Titania withdrew her sword. "Natsu. Get on."

Eyeing the sword now directed at his throat, Natsu began to cave and weakly responded. "Aye…"

Reluctantly he shuffled toward the vehicle in question and stepped on. Inside the others were all ready to go. They sat and waited impatiently for him to take his seat, however he didn't get halfway before he suddenly clutched his stomach and collapsed onto the wooden floorboards.

"Oi, hothead, don't you even think about drooling on me!" Gray exclaimed and quickly moved his foot which had been dangerously close to where Natsu's head rested. Already the Dragon Slayer began to drool as he tried to keep back the food he had eaten earlier. His cheeks puffed up and he broke out in a cold sweat, making strange little whimpering noises.

Suu floated down from her spot above Amu's shoulder and placed a small damp cloth on his forehead (not that it would do much to help his condition).

"Poor man ~ desu." She whispered.

"Are we ready to set off?" Erza poked her scarlet head into the back. Everybody nodded in response and soon they felt the carriage being pulled over the roads at which point Natsu's cheek size increased and he turned a few shades paler.

"Natsu," Happy waddled over to him and spoke in his ear. "We'll be back before you know it."

Ikuto was doubtful of this. It had taken God knows how many hours to arrive in Acalypha. He didn't really want to face the trip back, but it had to he done and so here he was ready to endure the long journey ahead stuck in a small space with these people. He took his eyes off the famous Salamander who lay in front of him.

"He's easily affected by sickness?" Nagihiko spoke up.

Lucy nodded. "Unfortunately so."

Gray meanwhile gave the Dragon Slayer a look of annoyance even though he was too busy suffering to notice. "The damn fool gets motion sickness just by thinking about it."

"It's just something Dragon Slayers have to live with." Lucy added, shrugging and completely unfazed by it.

At that moment Natsu tried to speak up and began whimpering again. "T-Troia… Worn-!" He was interrupted mid-sentence as another wave of nausea hit him, probably caused by a bump in the road.

"What's he saying?" Ikuto raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Wendy's Troia has worn off." Happy explained for him. "Before we left Wendy cast a spell on him that made him unable to be affected by motion sickness, but it will have worn out since yesterday."

Ikuto made a humming noise to show he understood, but didn't say any more.

For almost half of their journey back to Magnolia, things were relatively quiet. Not many others were passing down the road and they didn't speak to each other. Tadase tried to start up a conversation with Amu who was a bit reluctant and too timid to break the silence and Natsu mumbled incoherently to himself, but that was about it.

However about halfway to their destination, the carriage suddenly came to an abrupt halt. They all let out cries of surprise as they were thrown off if their seats and all landed in a heap on top of Natsu.

Gray was the first to get up off the floor and growled in annoyance. "What the hell's this?"

"What's going on?" Amu murmured, hurriedly moving off of Rima's back who she then gave an apologetic look. Rima seemed to accept this and nodded back in response, but didn't bother to free Kukai who was trapped under her legs.

"God's sake," Gray ran a hand through his hair and scowled. He stepped over the others to reach the door. "What's Erza thinking?"

With that he left the carriage to share words (probably harsh words) with Erza. Meanwhile everybody else sorted themselves out.

"Oi, is everyone okay?" Kukai asked as he helped Yaya up.

"I think so..." Lucy replied. She leant against the wall and rubbed the back of her head. Happy popped up from behind her shoulder and rested his head on her.

"Aye..."

Ikuto was quick to get back on his feet, being as agile as he was. He was about to go and see what was going on outside when a familiar female voice reached his ears.

"I'm asking you to help us!"

Ikuto frowned, his eyes widening.

_'Y-You're kidding...'_

_**X.X.X.**_

The figure stood in the marketplace took another glance over her shoulder and adjusted the hood of cloak so that her face would be less visible to passers-by.

Behind her another, shorter figure moved closer. He observed the marketplace closely, fascinated by everything he saw. This place was alien to him and he was greatly interested in discovering more about this world.

He pushed his glasses further up his nose and faced the young woman beside him.

"I apologise once more, Hoshina-san, but I don't see any reason to disguise ourselves. If anything wearing these cloaks will only make us appear to be more suspicious."

Utau replied in a sharp voice which clearly told him she wouldn't be persuaded otherwise. "I don't care, Kairi." She said simply.

Kairi sighed to himself, knowing that she wasn't likely to trust anyone they came across anytime soon. She was cautious, understandably, and she tried to hide the fact that she was afraid of what was going on.

Kairi himself didn't fully understand what had occurred back home. He had been called back to Tokyo by Nikaidou after the disappearances of the Seiyo Guardians and, intrigued with the knowledge that only they had been targeted, came back from his hometown to hopefully get some answers and confirm whether or not this was Easter's doing. Shortly after his arrival he had been approached by none other than Hoshina Utau. She'd told him that before the supposed kidnappings of the Guardians her brother, Easter's puppet, had also vanished and so the two decided to help each other. They would search for their friends and Ikuto together.

One evening they had been out in the deserted streets searching when without warning the weather decided to take a turn for the worst. Only as they were about to head back to their homes the sky seemed to open up and the two had stood there gaping at the strange empty space above them. After that everything was a blur, but Kairi was certain that he remembered some sort of pulling force that drew him closer to that hole in the sky. Next thing he knew he was lying in long grass with Utau a short distance away from him. He came to dazed and confused and once the dizziness has worn off he looked up to find himself in a field. The rain was clearing, but still soaked his face, it was late in the evening and he was most definitely far away from home.

"Come on." Utau spoke again, dragging him away from his thoughts and they walked on through the marketplace.

The green-haired boy took his time. He grabbed a notepad and a pencil from his front pocket and began writing down notes. Where he was, what was going on around him, everything he saw. He figured that perhaps if he wrote enough down about the place he might be able to remember enough information to recall the name of the town. So far no luck, but he had plenty of time.

Utau however just grumbled and rolled her eyes at him. He sure was taking his sweet time.

"Keep up or I'll leave you behind." she told him in monotone, weaving her way through the small crowds. "Hurry up!" Now he was just trying her patience as he examined some of the items being sold.

"All of this is really very interesting, Hoshina-san." He replied, though he was distracted as he attempted to decipher some ancient language that was engraved on a vase.

"We don't have time for this!" She told him fiercely.

"Hoshina-san-"

"Tsukiyomi."

Kairi blinked at her quick response. "Tsukiyomi?"

"Hoshina's nothing more than a stage name. Please if you must be so formal call me by my proper name."

"Oh," he nodded in understanding. "Well, Tsukiyomi-san, learning more about where we are might give us an indications as to which part of the country we are in. What do you want to do? Wander aimlessly all day? We went with that last night and we ended up here."

"Yes." Utau said slowly. "So if we keep wandering we're sure to come across another town."

He shook his head at her and gave in. He followed her as she continued through the town.

They weren't sure how long they were walking, or how far they'd gone, but eventually Kairi was beginning to regret letting her tale them out of town. It would have been much more simple to just ask someone where they were, but no. Utau's trust issues were showing through at the moment. But still she walked on and they began travelling down the side of a single half-cobblestone, half-dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

As they travelled, Kairi tried to distract himself from the growing feeling of anxiety and took out his notepad, going over his notes countless times.

Then, as his feet began to grow weary, Utau stopped in her tracks.

Kairi bumped into her back and for a moment he had to desperate fight to keep the glasses on his face, but once he had regained his composure he saw the reason for her abrupt stop.

Not too far away from them was a horse-drawn carriage which in itself Kairi found interesting. He didn't think these vehicles were still in use for long-distance travel anymore. What interested him more though was that the person driving it was dressed completely in armour. With scarlet hair, a calm expression and shining armour that reflected the sun she looked rather out of place.

As he was taking all of this in, Utau stepped forward.

"Hey!"

The boy frowned. She was reluctant to speak to people in the town, so what made this woman so different? Though not wanting to risk an argument with the fiery blonde, he kept quiet.

The carriage drew nearer and it was evident that the armoured woman had noticed them when she quickly came to a stop. From the back if the carriage Kairi thought he heard yelling, but decided to ignore it for now.

Her voice clear and straight to the point, the woman spoke to them. "What seems to be the trouble?"

Kairi stepped forward, taking down the hood from his cloak. "We're..." he had to think quickly to explain. "We are travellers." He told her. "However along our way it appears we have gotten lost and need some help to get back to our homes."

The red-headed woman nodded.

"Is that so? Where exactly were you heading?"

But before Utau could answer her question the carriage door opened and out stepped a tall, dark-haired man. And, to put it simply, he looked pissed off.

"Erza!" He raised his voice and glared at the woman. "What's all this about?"

At the sound of his voice, Kairi's head turned sharply in the nan's direction. He sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Utau was a different matter. She was quick to realise the similarity between his and her brother's own voice. Deep, masculine and seductive... yes, this was the same voice that belonged to Ikuto.

"Who are you?" Utau questioned, intent on getting an answer out of him. "What's your name?"

The man folded his arms and looked at her as if she had two heads. "Huh?"

Irritated now at the lack of a straight answer, she repeated herself. "Who are you?"

"Look, lady," he drawled, tired of this distraction already, "I'm not just telling you who I am. If you're lost we can tell you the way, but that's about it."

"Now," the woman, or Erza as the man had referred to her as, said calmly, "where are you heading to?"

"Tokyo." Utau told them.

Erza's eyes widened. "Tokyo?"

She and the man shared a knowing glance, but neither answered.

"Which route do we take to get to Tokyo?" Kairi asked them and prepared to write down the directions on his notepad.

It was evident that the man didn't know how respond "W-We can't-"

The blonde frowned. "It can't be that difficult! We just need help getting to the capital! Surely you know where that should be?"

The man sounded uneasy. "We can direct you to Crocus if you-"

At this Utau took a step forward and snapped, "I'm asking you to help us!"

Before the two strangers could respond the carriage door once again opened. This time out stepped a tall, lean, blue-haired seventeen-year-old male whom Utau definitely recognised.

"Ikuto!"

Her brother looked completely astounded. He barely managed a whisper. "Utau..?"

She cried out his name in pure joy as she rushed forward and clung to his front.

"IKUTO!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Wow it's been, what, over a month since my last update? Ahaha my apologies ^^''' I haven't been feeling in the mood to write lately -.- and sometimes I still have no idea what to do with this. As it was originally intended to be a one-shot it never really had a plotline and I carried on without thinking one through properly :L But now I have a basic idea so it should be fine.**

**But you don't wanna hear my rambling. Here's chapter 15. Hope you enjoy ^^**

* * *

"Ikuto!"

Ikuto let out a heavy sigh as Utau clung to him, love hearts radiating off of her. Just as he remembered.

"Utau..."

At the mention of her name she looked up at him with wide, lilac eyes. "Nii-san?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders and managed to detach the blonde who let out a small whimper in disappointment. He stared her in the eyes and somehow managed to speak calmly, though on the inside he was anything but.

"Utau, what are you doing here?"

Utau opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her brow creased as she tried to think of exactly how to explain everything simply. However, Kairi found a way quicker and stepped forward beside them.

"Tsukiyomi-san," he pushed his glasses up before continuing, "We aren't quite sure of what happened, but it seems we were transported to another part of the country. We were outside when there appeared some... rather strange phenomena in the sky..."

Ikuto's eyes widened a fraction at this. Kairi didn't seem to notice though and instead gave the older man a small smile. "I must say it is a relief to find you here as well."

A little taken aback at this, Ikuto merely gave a nod before facing his sister again.

"How long have you two been here?" He asked.

The blonde's brow creased as she tried to remember. "Since some time last night."

"Do you know where this was?"

She simply shook her head.

"Look,"

Everyone turned at the sound of Gray's voice. He moved closer to the small group and continued.

"I don't know exactly what's going on here, but if you know this guy-" he gestured to Ikuto with a nod of his head "-then the Master needs to know about it." He walked right past them and opened the carriage door. "Get in and come back to Fairy Tail with us. There's... a lot to go over."

With that the ice make mage disappeared into the carriage, leaving the others staring at the spot where he'd stood. At this point Erza spoke up once more.

"Well, climb in. We should reach the guild by about sunset if we keep going."

Utau and Kairi glanced at each other and then at Ikuto, as if asking whether it was safe to go along with them or not. He placed a hand on Utau's arm and began to lead her to the carriage door.

"Get in," he said in monotone, "I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."

Utau cocked her head to the side, confused, but didn't protest as he gently pushed her inside.

Immediately there were cheers and loud greetings as the Guardians inside met with the two newcomers. Ikuto found himself smiling in the slightest at the sound, however he quickly wiped it from his face before joining them.

**_X.X.X._**

The Guardian's wide eyes all fixed upon Utau and Kairi, the former still recovering from the welcome they had been given (not to mention the surprise). The latter kept to himself, sat quietly in a corner and trying to avoid eye contact with Amu as well as hide the faint blush on his cheeks. He'd only recently confessed his feelings towards her, he wasn't expecting to see her in person so soon! On top of this he would feel Tadase staring at him every so often. He couldn't blame the boy though, he _had_ confessed to the Joker whilst fully knowing Tadase's own feelings for her.

The two had explained to the others how they had come to be in Fiore and to be honest were quite relieved that they weren't alone. All had experienced the same things and all would be together until they found their way home.

The Fairy Tail mages, interested by the whole situation, sat in silence and listened to the others. Well, except for Natsu who was lying in a heap in another corner and trying to keep his stomach contents actually inside his stomach. Every now and then they'd hit a bump in the road and he'd let out a wail or a groan of discomfort at which point either Happy or Lucy would go over to him and try and comfort him.

"So... You were looking for us?" Amu said slowly, breaking the brief silence.

Utau nodded rather reluctantly. "Yes. You could say that..." She let her eyes wander elsewhere and turned her head to the side. "Easter's more likely to try something new whilst you're missing."

At Utau's response, Amu bit back a smile, but said nothing more.

Once again silence consumed the carriage. At least until the vehicle jerked a bit and the mighty Dragon Slayer in the corner began to moan some more, trembling and clutching his shaky sides.

_"G-Gonna hurl-!"_

Gray let out a groan in frustration and folded his arms. "Honestly, why don't we just get Erza in here and knock Flamebrain out?"

He was quickly silenced with a slap enforced by Lucy. And quite a painful one it looked as he quickly began to cool down the back of his head with his hand.

"So," Utau turned back to the Guardians, "where is it that we're going?"

To answer her question, Daichi jumped off his spot on top of Kukai's head and hovered over to her. "Fairy Tail!"

Intrigued, Kairi wiped the pink shade from his face and faced the chara. "Fairy Tail?"

"Mm!" Ran appeared and nodded enthusiastically. "Fairy Tail! It's huge! It's a place where mages and wizards gather to do work!"

Miki whipped her sketchbook out from her satchel and held it up, showing him and Utau watercolours of the impressive guild hall. "It looks like this," she explained and continued flipping through the book, going through perhaps twenty or so paintings and sketches of different views of the guild.

"Wizards?" Utau raised an eyebrow at them. Quickly though she began to frown. "Now look, I know this situation is bizarre, but don't think I'm stupid enough to believe-"

In the background Ikuto sighed and placed his forehead in his hand. He glanced up as everyone's gaze rested on him. Obviously his sigh was louder than he had intended it to be.

He didn't reply though, instead turning his face away and studying the floorboards.

_'I really don't want to go through this whole magic explanation God knows how many times...'_

Back with Utau, many of the other charas had gathered around her and were trying to convince the idol that the idea of magic wasn't 'stupid' as she had put it.

"It's true ~ desu!" Suu insisted, nodding her head fiercely as if it would help her point.

"Look," Miki went back through her art of the guild, "it's all here."

"And see," Kusukusu went up to the image and pointed to the colourful characters who were dotted about the picture. "These are all members of Fairy Tail!"

"Wow!" Ran examined the bird's-eye painting of the guild hall. "Everyone really is in here..."

Daichi came up as close as he could to the paper. "That's a brilliant painting!" He exclaimed in astonishment.

"Of course it is!" Kukai smiled at his guardian character. Then he frowned and turned back to Utau and Kairi where he couldn't help but feel that something was missing.

After a while it hit him.

"Hey..." He began slowly. "Kairi... Where's Musashi?"

He didn't miss the look of upset on the former Jack's face and he certainly didn't overlook Utau's worried expression.

"Idol-san, where's Iru? And Eru?"

That was when once again the silence set in. The charas suddenly became quiet and looked at the two, searching for any signs of their guardian characters.

"Utau," Amu spoke quietly, but still earned a warning look from the blonde, "where are your guardian characters?"

"I..." Utau shook her head. "I don't know. Kairi doesn't know either."

Amu glanced over at the green-haired boy who was once more in his corner keeping to himself.

"They were left behind." Utau said simply, ignoring the others shocked expressions.

It was then that the carriage came to a halt, yet none of the Guardians made a move to get up. They sat in stunned silence, unmoving.

Gray was the first to stand, muttering something about how it was about damn time they arrived back and quickly left. He was followed by Happy and Lucy who guided a still recovering Natsu out of the door.

Ikuto also stood and eventually the others followed his lead.

They stepped outside and immediately Utau and Kairi's jaws dropped at the sight of the building in front of them.

"Well welcome to Fairy Tail." Ikuto said quietly and made for the front doors with Yoru not far behind.

"Come on, entrance is this way ~ nya!"


	16. Chapter 16

**What is this? Could this be? I actually got round to updating this fic? Praise.**

**I'm not even giving excuses for my lack of updates anymore. But at least I am updating and at least this one happens to be a longer chapter than usual :D. Hopefully I can get round to chapter 17 sooner.**

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Just like the Guardians and Ikuto who had come before them, it was now Utau and Kairi's turn to stare in astonishment at the rowdy guild hall for the first time. Shocked and confused, they seemed to have become frozen in the doorway and it was a little while before the others decided they might need a helping hand getting further into the building.

"This way, Utau," Amu began, gently placing a hand on the blonde's arm and attempting to lead her to a spare table only to have it shaken off as Utau managed to thaw herself out. She huffed and followed her brother instead, though still felt a little weak in the legs.

"I can walk myself, thank you," she huffed as she walked away from the younger girl, chin stuck up as high as she could and trying to maintain her model's posture.

The group made their way to the table, which was thankfully a rather large one, and managed to squeeze themselves around it a second empty one that was beside it. All the while they ignored the stares and quizzical looks from the members of the guild who as always were highly interested in the appearance of another two from the alternate universe known as Earth.

Meanwhile, Ikuto made his way towards Erza and the rest of Team Natsu who were stood by the bar talking to Mira about their latest mission. Seeing him approaching, the barmaid waved at him with a sweet smile which caused the other's attention to switch to him also.

"Tsukiyomi!" Natsu beamed, having by now recovered from his dreaded sickness. "Good first mission!"

"Yeah, I suppose," Ikuto began. He _did _open his mouth to say more, but was quickly cut off by Erza.

The red-headed woman cleared her throat and held up the fairly large bag that had been given to them by the client. Having dropped off the valuable treasure on the way back to the guild, the client's customer had been pleased that there were no problems over the course of their journey.

"I suppose you want your share of the 50,000 jewels, yes?" she asked, already beginning to open the bag.

"No." he responded. The others gave him looks of disbelief.

Lucy's mouth hung open by a fraction as she stared at him with wide eyes. "Eh? What do you mean you don't want it?" She then turned to the bag, trying her best to peer over and catch a glimpse of the precious jewels inside. "That could go to pay my rent!"

From his position on the bar counter, Happy blinked at her. "Lucy's rent is late again, isn't it?"

Not paying attention to the blonde mage's death glare, Natsu leaned over to respond. "Lucy's rent is nearly always late, Happy."

"Aye! I expect she spent it all on that drawer of sexy underwear!"

_"I do NOT spend my rent money on sexy- _WAIT_!" _Lucy's eyes popped out of their sockets and she flushed, mortified at the cat's statement. _"HAVE YOU BEEN- I MEAN- I DO NOT HAVE SEXY UNDERWEAR!"_

"Run, Happy, run!"

"Aye, sir!"

Before Ikuto even knew what was happening, Natsu and Happy had disappeared quicker than anybody could blink and were quickly followed by a fuming Lucy. The teen gulped. Those two probably wouldn't make it out alive.

"Ano…" he uneasily turned back to Erza who still awaited his response as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, Gray stood awkwardly to the side; his cheeks shaded in the palest of pinks. He coughed unsteadily and sat on a nearby barstool.

"Beer, Mira. Quickly."

"Coming, coming!"

"So," Titania's voice brought his attention back to the matter at hand. "You're not interested in the money?"

"No," Ikuto told her. "I need to pay you back for that sword you gave me and I owe you and your team for helping out. Split it between you. Though, I will take some to pay Mirajane back for all the food."

"As you wish." Erza nodded, not about to protest with his wishes. She delved her hand into the bag and produced several golden coins. "How much are you paying Mira back?"

He thought for a moment, struggling to recall how much exactly he'd been taking from the bar. Well, for all her kindness and hard work he could give her a little extra, right?

"About 5000."

Erza quickly calculated how much she had to take out still and placed the small mound of coins on the bar counter beside her. "That should be accurate."

He nodded, thanking her before she wandered off to split the money between the rest of her team (and probably stop Lucy from skinning the Salamander and the cat alive).

**_X.X.X._**

Having given the money he owed to a pleasantly surprised Mira and spending a good twenty or so minutes looking round, Ikuto finally found the person he was looking for.

Sat by herself at a table on the second floor of the Fairy Tail guild hall, Levy was hunched over an old-looking, worn book that was probably as thick as five regular books combined. Judging by the few empty glasses to the side she had been here quite a while studying and reading to herself, so Ikuto was a little bit reluctant to disturb her, but the arrival of his sister and Kairi was something he knew would interest her greatly.

He walked over to the end of the table and cleared his throat slightly to draw attention to his presence only to be replied with silence. Of course it would take much more than that to detach her from her reading.

This time, he leaned over the table and waved a pale hand in front of her face. "Levy,"

The small girl blinked once or twice in confusion before snapping her head up to face him. "Oh, Ikuto." She gave him one of her small smiles. "Successful first mission?"

He nodded his navy head, eager to move the conversation on. "Yeah, it was fine, but listen." She frowned, but stayed silent for him to continue. "There's some people down there you should meet."

Levy instantly snapped the book she'd been reading shut and stood up, tucking the massive thing under her arm. It was surprising she was strong enough to carry it in the first place, but Ikuto supposed she could make an exception when it came to literature.

"Where are we going then?" she asked, waiting for him to lead the way.

"Just downstairs." He murmured in reply before taking a few long strides over to the staircase, the petite girl walking at a faster pace behind as she tried to keep up with him.

Ikuto led her to the ground floor of the guild and manoeuvred his way through the guild members and tables to find the Guardians who all looked in his direction once seeing him heading their way. Except for Tadase and Rima who weren't about to go being friendly with him any time soon.

Ikuto didn't bother talking to any of them and instead waited for Levy to catch up. He then gestured towards Utau and Kairi who both had their eyes on the short, blue-haired person that had approached them, uncomfortable with how comfortable the others were around such a total stranger.

"Levy, this is Utau and this is Kairi," Ikuto began. "They found themselves in Magnolia yesterday night. They're from our world too."

Hearing this, Levy's hazel eyes grew in size and she hopped over to get closer to them, placing her heavy book down on the table with a _'thud!'._

"You're joking?" she almost gasped. "People from Earth are still showing up?"

"Yes, we are," Utau gave her an unimpressed look, "and I'd appreciate it if you didn't gawp at us like we're some sort of freaks." The idol added coldly, turning her lilac eyes away and glaring at a wall.

Levy's jaw dropped, then closed, then she began to spout a stream of awkward stutters, embarrassed by her own behaviour. "O-Oh-I-I-I'm so sorry, um, I-I really-"

Kairi coolly held a hand up, stopping the bluenette mid-stutter and shook his head slowly. "It's alright. I understand." He reassured her. "You must be interested in what has happened to us."

Calming down now, Levy nodded. "That's right. I would. What exactly happened that led to you being here?"

"Well," Kairi took his glasses off from his face to clear away a smudge that had formed on one of the lenses. He rubbed them on the sleeve of his shirt slowly as he remembered what had happened to them. "We were out in the city when it became unusually dark. The weather was definitely strange and rather unusual for the time of year in Tokyo, so as it became increasingly worse myself and Tsukiyomi-san here decided to head home, but as we were about to part there was… a strange opening in the sky that seemed to pull us in."

"An anima." Levy stated, nodding firmly.

Kairi placed the glasses back on and raised an eyebrow. "Anima?"

"Yes, that's what it's called." She told him, her brow creasing as she went over everything in her brain. "It's a sort of doorway between two worlds that absorbs something from one of those worlds into the other. We just don't know why it's happening between Earthland and Earth."

"Intruging…" the former Jack mused, trying to mentally pick any logic out of this theory.

After a brief moment of silence, Levy spoke up again. "Say, do you know where you were taken? I'm going to guess that you two didn't end up in Magnolia."

This time, Utau replied. She dropped her cold act from earlier and shook her head. "No. But wherever it was it was horrible." She grimaced at the thought of the place. "I mean, when we arrived there it was freezing and soaking… and it was pitch black. I didn't know where in the hell I was."

"Mm…" the bookworm hummed in thought, a finger placed on her lower lip. "You don't… You can't guess how far away it was from here?"

"It was far," Kairi nodded, "and it wasn't too far to another town; however that was one quite far from here…"

"Another town?" Levy repeated, her eyes seeming to light up for a split second. When the boy nodded she grinned. "Wait here."

The group watched in confusion as she suddenly turned and began rushing away, going to one of the doors at the back of the room and disappearing behind one of them. However, it wasn't too long before she reappeared, brandishing a second, larger book and bounding over to them again. Said book was placed in the middle of the table with a thumping twice as audible as the other had made, attracting the attention of almost half the guild who watched over with interest.

Levy opened the cover and began flipping through the pages until she stopped somewhere near the middle and pointed a finger at the page. "There!" she exclaimed, joyful to be able to put one of the guild's books to use. It turned out she had opened it to a page displaying a map of the country. It took up an entire two pages and clearly pinpointed every landmark, every town, guild, city, location name… everything.

"Do you think you could try and give us a rough location?" she asked, glancing over at Utau and Kairi hopefully.

The two leaned forwards, scanning their eyes over the map. Kairi lifted a finger and placed it over a label that read _'Magnolia'. _"So this is where we are now…" he murmured, still looking over the pages.

After a few seconds, Utau pointed to an area on the map. "There…" she said, drawing everyone's attention to an area in the west of the country. "It matches. According to this, the terrain is mostly rough. It's steep, hills, countryside… and there's a town not too far from it."

Beside her, Kairi nodded slowly. "Yes, you're right, Tsukiyomi-san. It matches. _This _is where we were last night."

"In that case," heads turned to see the Fairy Tail guild's Master stood behind them, "I'd suggest that you go over there and see if everything's normal now."

Levy's eyes sparkled again. "Really, Master?"

Makarov nodded, a serious expression set on his features. "Of course. I want to investigate this. If we're not careful, we could risk doing damage to the fabric of either their or our own world."

"What exactly do you want us to do there, Master?" Ikuto spoke curiously, raising an eyebrow.

Makarov took a moment to hop up onto a chair and then onto the top of a table. "I want you to just make sure that the anima has closed up. Also, as this one didn't occur in Magnolia, I want you to see if you can find any trace to who is responsible."

"Well, I don't know about that, Master…" Levy said quietly, closing her book of maps. "It's hard to know where to look. Mystogan could detect them, but he never told any of us how to do so himself."

The Master let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes. "He probably didn't think that we'd ever be facing this problem again now that our connection with Edolas has been cut off. Not that I blame him…"

"So…" Kukai (who had been silent like the rest of the current Guardians for a while now) said slowly. "We're going to this place then, right? When do we set off?"

At this, Makarov gave the boy a stern look and shook his head. "You're not going." As he was about to protest, he deliberately interrupted, not about to hear his arguments. "I won't have you or your friends going over there. It's unlikely, but should a lead appear to whoever is opening these animas be found I don't want any of you to be caught up in it. We don't know what kind of person they might be. Ikuto will be allowed to go. He was the first to arrive here and has had special training sessions with Erza. You I'm afraid would be defenceless."

"Hey!" Daichi frowned at the old man. "Kukai's not defenceless!"

"That's right ~ desu!" Su chimed.

Kusukusu made a mid-air cartwheel. "Rima and me can character transform! We can fight!"

There was a pause.

"Character transform?" Makarov repeated to himself, rubbing his chin with a hand. "I presume this is something to do with guardian characters, yes?"

Tadase nodded his blonde head. "It certainly is. It's to do with using your guardian character's power and being able to fight with it."

"120% of our power, I might add." Kiseki nodded. "That's power fit for a King."

At Kiseki's comment, Ikuto smirked. His dark, midnight orbs focused on his 'little brother'. "Oh, I don't know…" he said slyly, earning a dirty look from the little King. Yet still he continued, starting to put extra emphasis on each syllable. "120 is an awful lot, but I wouldn't say fit for a King, more like… a tiny… little… _prince…"_

Rage flashed across Tadase's features much like the one he'd seen on the boy's face during some of their battles.

_"Tsukiyomi Ikuto-!"_ he growled before all of a sudden the look of anger was replaced by one of just pure… demented evil. A familiar little crown appeared on his golden head and he shot up out of his seat, almost knocking the bench backwards in the process.

"T-Tadase-kun!" Amu choked out just before the dark, fiery aura began to burn.

_"I AM NO PRINCE! I AM A KING! AH-HAHAHA!"_

The Guardians sweatdropped as he threw his head back and began to laugh hysterically.

_"AHAHAHAHAHA!"_

The entire guild was now watching. Silent, unmoving, no one really knew how to react. Ikuto merely smirked. Yes, it hurt to have to push his little brother away, but he'd be a liar if he said that the boy didn't have one hilarious character change.

_"BOW DOWN TO ME, COMMONERS! SOON I SHALL BECOME KING OF THE WORLD! SO COME! HELP ME AS I CONQUER THIS WORLD AND MOVE ON TO OUR OWN! AAH-HAHAHA~!"_

**_X.X.X._**

"I'm sorry, everyone…"

Amu's eyes softened at the sound of Tadase's whimpering. "It's okay, Tadase-kun," she said, a hint of sympathy in her voice, "you can't help it after all."

"You really weren't too bad, Hotori-kun." Nagihiko attempted to console him whilst using the most caring tone he could.

Yaya nodded madly. "Yeah! Usually Tadase-kun goes on for a lot longer! And calls people commoners more often!"

"Lucky for us Rima knows how to use the bucket!" Kukai tried to add what little humour he could to the situation.

Rima merely took a sip of the tea she'd requested and coolly replied. "You still looked like a total moron."

There were several more whimpers from underneath the table. Utau rolled her eyes and bent over to glare at the boy who was currently curled up in a small ball shape underneath.

"Oh for goodness' sake, get over it and stop snivelling. Nobody really cares after we gave them that explanation."

Reluctantly, Tadase slowly unfurled himself from his ball and made his way to the edge of the table. He warily poked his head out to see that the guild members had gone back to their usual business instead of staring at his bizarre and highly embarrassing character change.

With a blush splattered across his normally pale cheeks, he took a seat and shot the deadliest glare he could at Easter's puppet who sat a few tables away, leant back, arms and long legs crossed casually and smirking all the while.

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto…" he muttered with as much venom as he possibly could.

"Calm down, Tadase-kun." Amu said weakly. "At least they agreed to let us go and investigate that anima thing… or whatever it's called…"

Tadase nodded, still recovering from his embarrassment, yet he still couldn't help but give his 'nii-san' another glare before going back to discuss the plans for the following day.


	17. Chapter 17

**Well... I am such a lousy author for not updating for almost two months... ****_I apologise! _****D: But chapter 17 is here. Yes, I'm surprised too. But enjoy it anyway! (And I shall see when I can get round to the next one -.-;)**

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It was early in the morning when they all gathered in the guild hall, ready to set off to find the last anima. The Guardians, after having to spend some time once more persuading the Master that everything would be okay if they needed to fight, were outside near the entrance, taking in the fresh air and waiting for Team Natsu plus Levy to head out with them. There was a comfortable silence between them until Ikuto suddenly broke it.

"Are you sure you all want to come?" he asked seriously, for once addressing all of them instead of just Amu or Utau like he'd normally do. It was evident that the others were fairly surprised that he was talking to them at all, but they didn't say anything about that and only answered his question.

"Yes." Nagihiko replied back as seriously as the older male had done. "Of course we do."

"Why wouldn't we?" Amu asked, genuinely curious.

"Because," Ikuto began, "we're just going to check the place out. Other than that we're travelling with a group of people who are practically strangers."

Utau rolled her eyes and faced her brother although he was standing a little away from them. "It doesn't matter that they're strangers." She told him. "This is linked to how we arrived here and so it's linked to how we will get back." She paused for a moment to let it sink into him. "What if you went? Only you, with them, and you found one of these anima things. You would be able to get home, but we wouldn't and we'd miss our best chance of returning back."

"Idol-san's right." Kukai agreed, nodding his head. "We all want to get back home and this could be a very good chance."

There was a brief moment of silence as Ikuto accepted this, slowly nodding and turning away to face the cobbled streets ahead of them. "Okay."

It was then that the double doors opened and out came Team Natsu, Titania leading the way of course and her team mates following behind her each looking almost dead at having woken up at pretty much the break of dawn. Happy was yawning and attempting to snooze on Natsu's shoulder who also let a yawn escape his mouth. Shortly behind them was Levy who surprisingly didn't look half-asleep, but awake and alive and ready to face the day as well as this whole long and tiring travel. She took a deep breath as she left the building, sighing in content and stretching her arms out.

"Ah~! Lovely day already! Right, Lu-chan?"

Lucy mumbled something incoherent in response and leaned onto her suitcase. It had been recommended by Erza herself that they pack luggage as they would most likely have to spend the night somewhere if they didn't make it in time. Not that the group from Earth had anything to pack besides a few spare clothes given to them by charitable guild members and Ikuto only had to carry his sword. Even then they only took a couple spares, Miki could organise clothing for them all in an instant with no packing required.

"Yes, Levy-chan!"

"A wonderful day!"

Ikuto groaned and Yoru made some sort of hissing sound as Jet and Droy trailed behind Levy like a couple of lost puppies.

"It's the lapdogs ~ nya." Yoru hissed once more, not at all above hiding his dislike for the two men. "Those two really piss me off ~ nya!"

Ikuto only hummed in response, but truthfully he could see what Yoru meant. Those two were always following Levy everywhere she went unless she snuck away somehow. They were loud, annoying and they always seemed to have to compete with one another for the small girl's attention even though he'd heard they'd both been turned down by her. Hopelessly in love and utterly hopeless – that was how he'd started to describe them. In his head that is. Out loud and he was sure Levy would stand up for them and Ikuto was glad to be on good terms with her, so he wasn't about to start any arguments up with the person closest to him in this weird guild.

Anyway, the groups soon were climbing into the carriages that the Master had provided for them. Again Ikuto groaned. With about sixteen of them all going on this trip and with only two carriages this would be a very long, cramped journey. Again. Well, actually there were three carriages in total, but Team Shadow Gear had reserved one for themselves already. Jet and Droy had said that with less people to hold it could be used as the luggage car although it was fairly obvious they most likely only wanted to spend more time alone with Levy. Not seeing this herself, Erza had agreed, praising them for their idea and setting up the first carriage ready to head off.

It was arranged that Erza would lead the way, carrying Natsu, Happy, Ikuto, Kukai, Utau and Kairi in the back whilst Gray, Lucy, Rima, Nagi, Yaya, Tadase and Amu would occupy the second carriage. Seeing as Natsu in his state of severe motion-sickness wouldn't be able to control the vehicle as it moved, he was pretty much useless and would have to curl up in the back somewhere with Happy to comfort him. Lucy would have been stuck with taking care of Natsu herself, but the requip mage had insisted they split into even numbers so that at two mages would be able to accompany the two groups of those from Earth, so the blonde woman was spared from being heaved over this one time.

Eventually they all made it into their assigned carriages and headed off under the rising sun in the search of the last anima. Ikuto poked his head out of the window in the door, checking to see if there was any tell-tale rain on the horizon, but nothing. Maybe when they got closer he'd see something.

"Perhaps…" Kairi began out of nowhere. He took off his glasses and began cleaning them with the edge of his jumper. "Perhaps, if we do indeed find an anima… I can't help but wonder how we would make our way through it again and back into our world?"

There was a silence as they all contemplated this. Well, silent except for Natsu who was whimpering over the uncomfortable sensation in his stomach. Wendy had only been able to give him a small sample of her Troia, saying that it was best this way and that he'd have to make do with it unless he wanted its effect to wear off completely.

"We'll have to see what happens when we get there." Kukai shrugged, folding his arms behind his neck as a sort of cushion.

Utau frowned in thought. "Maybe, because we were pulled through it the first time it'll just naturally pull us back through?"

"Well it seems that it only has that effect on those with Guardian Characters or at least Guardian eggs." Kairi mused. "So if it does do anything this time then I think we can assume that only those of us from Earth will experience anything."

"I suppose…" Utau nodded. "Ikuto?" she turned to him, almost asking if he had anything to add to the conversation.

Ikuto just shook his head and went back to staring out the window. Utau breathed a sigh and they all fell quiet for the rest of the journey.

**_X.X.X._**

When the carriage came to a stop it was late in the afternoon. The sun was becoming low in the clear sky and although it wouldn't be too long before darkness, they had some time at least to investigate the area so long as they didn't stray too far.

When they were safely to a stop at the side of the lonesome dust road Kukai was the very first to spring out of his seat and outside, eager to escape the horribly tense, silent atmosphere in carriage number one. Being the cheerful, loud guy he was that space was not to his liking at all.

One by one, everybody filed out and took a moment to stretch their legs and their arms and to breathe in the fresh, country air after being cramped up for however many hours it had been. They'd had a few brief stops, but none had lasted more than fifteen minutes. Apparently Erza was all about time keeping today.

"Alright!" the scarlet-haired mage drew their attention and pointed to the hills in the background. She turned her gaze to Utau and Kairi. "This is where you two arrived here, is it not?"

Utau nodded. "Yes. This is definitely the place."

The rest of them turned their eyes to the area. Thick, long grass that was knee-high swayed gently in the faint breeze, shadows cast across the blades by the looming, rugged hills in the background. Although the sun lit up about half of the landscape, it was really quite ominous. There were a few smudges of dark in the sky that looked as though they came from the mountainous features themselves, as though something was smoking from them, but as the small clouds drifted lazily by this illusion was soon gone.

"Good." Titania said. "We shall search the surrounding area until just before dark. I don't want anybody to become lost and I want you all to be alert. We don't know the area very well."

Nodding and understanding their instructions, they all set off into the grass and trekked towards the darkening landscape.

_"Tch," _to his side Ikuto caught Gray tugging his foot out of the grass that had wrapped around his ankles as he ploughed through it. "Damn, thick, grass," he muttered before going on into a little rant about how the vegetation here annoyed him so. Ikuto almost laughed. Hearing a voice identical to his own string out a range of expletives about something as trivial as _grass _was really quite amusing.

Soon they got to the point where they all had to trudge uphill as the slopes gradually increased. Ikuto quickly character changed with Yoru which helped quite significantly. He noticed Amu had undergone her own chara change with Ran and Kukai with Daichi. At least some of them had useful charas and methods to get uphill without tiring unlike some people. Natsu for example had gotten so tired of getting caught up in the local flora and tumbling back down that he'd taken to burning whatever was in his way, creating odd burnt patches across the land until Happy had offered to carry him up to which he'd happily accepted with a "Why didn't I think of that?! You're a genius, Happy!" "Aye, sir!".

Almost half an hour went by when it became clear to the group that they weren't going to find anything of interest here and so they all made their way back to the waiting carriages in the fading light, irritated, tired and with the majority from Earth feeling disheartened.

However, almost halfway back, Levy had pointed out seeing some sort of dirt trail that lead around and behind the mountainous terrain. They had considered following it, but realised that if they did so now they wouldn't be able to leave before it got too late. If they stayed in the blackness of night they really would get lost.

Eager to make their way to the nearest town and fall fast asleep in the first hotel they could find, they all agreed to come back the following day for another investigation.


End file.
